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Muliaina to win 99th cap for All Blacks
Scrumhalf Murray gets surprise Ireland start
Scots confident they can break down England defence

Posted: 29 Sep 2011 06:58 PM PDT

WELLINGTON: Fullback Mils Muliaina has been recalled by New Zealand and will earn his 99th cap in the World Cup Pool A clash against Canada on Sunday.

Israel Dagg was previously preferred at fullback but the 23-year-old will now switch to the right wing for the match at Wellington Regional Stadium this weekend.

The 31-year-old Muliaina said the competition in the squad, particularly from Dagg who has been in imperious form and was man of the match in the 37-17 win over France last week, was good for the team as they looked ahead to the knockout stages. "I think the form he has shown has been outstanding. He ... has really taken a step forward and is taking his opportunities," Muliaina told reporters at the team hotel.

"Guys like him and other guys in the team have set a benchmark and we get the opportunity to go out there and make sure we don't drop the standards. It's been a long time since I played test-match rugby so I am looking forward to going out and doing that."

Muliaina said he was not concentrating on the possibility of earning his 100th cap and joining captain Richie McCaw as the only centurions for the All Blacks. McCaw achieved the milestone against France.

"I suppose in a way it is just a number," Muliaina said. "A lot of people want to talk about it and when you're walking the streets you get a lot of people giving advice.

"But you realise how important it is to be in the All Blacks jersey when you haven't played in a few weeks.

"Every time you go out there it's special because you never know when it's going to be your last and I've realised that in the last three weeks," added Muliaina.

"I just have to go out there now and make sure I get another week and another week after that. But first of all I have to make sure I get this week right." Number eight Kieran Read will make his World Cup debut on Sunday after recovering from an ankle sprain he received in the final Tri-Nations match against Australia on Aug. 27.

He joins McCaw and Jerome Kaino in the loose forwards in what is Graham Henry's first-choice combination.

The coach, however, said Read would not play the full 80 minutes and with no specialist loose forward cover on the bench, McCaw and Kaino would probably be required for the entire match.

"He won't play the whole game. It's just a matter of being astute as to when we pull him off the field," Henry said. "I think we'll just see how things go.

"If Reado is not going to play the full 80 that might put a bit of pressure on the other loose forwards to play a full 80 but we'll make good decisions there hopefully."

Scrumhalf Jimmy Cowan will earn his 50th cap on Sunday while Zac Guildford makes his first appearance of the tournament on the left wing.

New Zealand have already won Pool A, qualifying for the quarter-finals where they will play the runners-up of Pool B in Auckland on Oct. 9.

Scrumhalf Murray gets surprise Ireland start

Posted: 29 Sep 2011 06:57 PM PDT

DUNEDIN: Ireland coach Declan Kidney sprung a surprise on Friday when he handed fledgling scrumhalf Conor Murray only his second international start in Sunday's crunch World Cup Pool C game against Italy.

The 22-year-old Munster number nine made his debut off the bench in the August warm-up test against France.

He started in Ireland's opening World Cup match against the United States and was an impressive replacement in the upset win over Australia.

His lack of experience may have been influential in the return of vastly experienced Ronan O'Gara at flyhalf in the only other change from the team who started against Australia.

Jonathan Sexton and Eoin Reddan drop to an also otherwise unchanged bench. "He's a good player," Kidney said of Murray. "I've been lucky that all five halfbacks have been going well so it's very thin margins.

"He's taken things in his stride really ... He got a few chances in the August games, he did well against the United States in difficult conditions and against Australia so I think he warrants his chance. "He seems to be enjoying himself right now."

Brian O'Driscoll, who sat out the win over Russia, returns to captain the team and said he had absolute faith in Murray.

"He's new but he's dealing with it extremely well," said O'Driscoll. "He's a confident young man, very much in his depth in the surrounding and you wouldn't know he has a handful, not even a handful, of tests under his belt."

With Australia expected to gain a bonus-point victory over Russia on Saturday, Ireland will probably need a draw or victory to progress to the quarter-finals as group winners.

"It's win or bust," O'Driscoll said. Beating Australia hasn't changed our original thought that we'd have to beat Italy in the final game. We know the magnitude of the game."

Italy need to win to have any chance of reaching the quarter-finals for the first time and though they have lost their last 15 games against Ireland, the last one, a 13-11 Rome defeat in the Six Nations in February, was hard on them.

"It's been getting closer and closer, it's getting harder and harder," O'Driscoll said. "We totally respect the quality they have but we have to be on our game and they have to deal with that too."

Scots confident they can break down England defence

Posted: 29 Sep 2011 06:55 PM PDT

AUCKLAND: Scotland are confident they have the weapons to break down one of the meanest defences at the World Cup at Eden Park this weekend and snatch a place in the quarter-finals away from England.

The best chance the Scots have of making sure they do not miss out on the last eight for the first time is to beat England in the Pool B clash by eight or more points and hope Argentina beat Georgia with at least four tries on Sunday.

Despite having scored just one try in their last four meetings with England, the Scots are convinced they have the attacking flair to get behind a defensive line that has conceded only a single try so far. "Our focus is about going out there and really getting stuck in to the English side and showing what we can do with ball in hand," attack coach Gregor Townsend told Reuters this week.

"I think we've got some really good attacking threats and even despite the conditions I think we have moved the ball well and we'll see what happens in the match."

Scotland are putting their faith in a revamped backline featuring Sean Lamont and Joe Ansbro in the centres, Max Evans and Simon Danielli on the wings as well as Ruaridh Jackson and Mike Blair as the halfback partnership.

The Scots have played a majority of their rugby in the tournament in wet conditions and although the sun shone throughout their training session on the Eden Park pitch on Friday, more rain is forecast for Auckland on Saturday.

"We've got some good exciting backs outside me that I'm hopefully going to unleash," flyhalf Jackson told reporters on Friday. "We'd like to score some tries and hopefully the conditions will work for that."

Although their task against the 2003 world champions is unenviable, the Scots have upset the odds in the past, most notably in 1990 when David Sole's side beat a highly-fancied England team 13-7 at Murrayfield in a Grand Slam decider.

"It's the biggest game for any Scottish international," added Townsend, who won 82 caps for his country. "The players do feel the emotion playing against England. We managed to get one over on them in 1990 and every year we're trying to repeat that." Coach Andy Robinson wants the Scots to channel those feelings, as well as the bitter disappointment of the last-gasp loss to Argentina last week, into a whirlwind of emotion that could rock the English.

"We've always said we've got to use every emotion," said the former England player and coach. "I really hope it's another cracking test match. For us, it's about finding the answers to breaking down this England team and if we do that, we have the players to finish off."

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Khamis, 29 September 2011

The Star Online: Sports

The Star Online: Sports

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