Whitelock’s to play 100th in All Blacks side

SYDNEY: All Blacks lock Sam Whitelock will play his milestone 100th Test on Saturday as New Zealand stick with their strongest possible unit to play a confident Australia in Sydney. Whitelock becomes only the eighth All Black to achieve the milestone, and does so with the world champions under pressure to defend a remarkable run over their neighbours.

At stake in the opening Rugby Championship clash of the season is the first round of the Bledisloe Cup, a trophy contested annually between New Zealand and Australia which the All Blacks have held since 2003.

Australia are buoyed by beating the All Blacks the last time they met, and although they lost the 2017 series 2-1, fly-half Bernard Foley showed their underlying boldness this week by saying they have set a target of keeping the All Blacks scoreless. Such confidence dictated to the All Blacks that there was no room to experiment this weekend. Coach Steve Hansen has not been swayed by calls to start developing multiple combinations ahead of next year’s World Cup, and particularly to use rising fly-half star Richie Mo’unga.

“The Bledisloe means a lot to this team and we have the opportunity to show just how much on Saturday night,” Hansen said when naming his best-available side today. Jack Goodhue has overtaken Anton Lienert-Brown at outside centre, otherwise the back line was predictable with Ben Smith, Waisake Naholo and Rieko Ioane filling the back three. With Sonny Bill Williams not available, Ryan Crotty is at inside centre with Beauden Barrett and Aaron Smith in the halves and starting their 26th Test together. Kieran Read and Brodie Retallick, who missed the series against France in June, return to the side with Read resuming the captaincy.