Special jersey to honour Colin Meads

– New Zealand are to wear special jerseys in their Rugby Championship clash against Australia in Dunedin today in a tribute to All Blacks great Colin Meads, captain Kieran Read said yesterday.

Meads died last Sunday aged 81 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Lock Sam Whitelock said he would donate his No 5 jersey from the match that doubles as a Bledisloe Cup game to the Meads family and Read said the team had thought of what else they could do to honour his legacy.

“We’ve certainly touched on him throughout the week,” Read told reporters in Dunedin of the memory of Meads. “We’re paying a great tribute to him on our jersey tomorrow night so the guys will certainly treasure that.

“It won’t necessarily win us the Test match, we have to do that ourselves,” he added, without giving any further details on the jersey.

The All Blacks won the first game of the southern hemisphere competition 54-34 in Sydney last week to put them within sight of retaining the symbol of trans-Tasman rivalry for a 15th successive season.

They manner in which they won –racing to a 54-6 lead in 48 minutes before conceding four unanswered tries – has given both sides cause for optimism ahead of the second match and Read said he expected a Wallaby backlash.

“You just have to look at the footage of the last 20 minutes of the game last week. We know how dangerous they can be,” Read said.

Australia suffered a late blow yesterday when lock Adam Coleman was ruled out after aggravating a shoulder injury. His injury has earned a recall for Rory Arnold, who was dropped after last week’s match.