A low-key celebration

It is difficult to recall a more lowkey build-up to an opening All Blacks test of the season than that surrounding Saturday’s Pacific doubleheader at Mt Smart Stadium. Ticket sales have been slow for what has been dubbed a celebration of Pacific rugby as the Ma¯ori All Blacks meet Samoa for the second time in as many weeks before Ian Foster’s All Blacks open against a severely understrength Tongan side in the first test at the Warriors’ home ground.

Tonga basing themselves in Rotorua this week has not helped engage the South Auckland community but the public are also well aware the result is a foregone conclusion, with fears the All Blacks will pile on a one-sided cricket score.

Four debutants named in the All Blacks squad adds interest. All eyes will be on Chiefs second five-eighth Quinn Tupaea as he is thrust into a starting debut while Crusaders flanker Ethan Blackadder, prop George Bower and Blues halfback Finlay Christie eagerly await their introductions from the bench.

The All Blacks have named two sets of brothers in Rieko and Akira Ioane and Jordie, Scott and Beauden Barrett, the latter making his return from a Japanese sabbatical off the bench.

Tonga’s 13 debutants — some of whom have not played the highest level of New Zealand provincial rugby — face a mammoth task mitigating the damage given their challenges assembling a credible, competitive squad in the Covid-19 climate with many of their leading players based in Europe.