By CHRIS RATTUE
The All Blacks' Sydney stopover will almost certainly force Auckland to bench their two test players for Saturday's NPC clash against Southland in Invercargill.
The test squad arrive in Auckland this afternoon, following their shock defeat at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.
They landed in Sydney on Monday night and have been holding debriefing sessions.
The Auckland management expected prop Craig Dowd to be back at training early this week but the All Blacks' unexpectedly late arrival means he is unlikely to be considered for the starting line-up on Saturday.
And Auckland were also surprised that Doug Howlett, who did not travel to the test in South Africa because of a knee complaint, was required to go to Sydney on Monday afternoon to be part of the analysis of the tests.
Test squad members will come back into the NPC in dribs and drabs, with seven of them already ruled out of this weekend's games.
Canterbury, who will be hot favourites to beat Counties Manukau in Christchurch, will not consider Todd Blackadder, Norm Maxwell, Mark Hammett, Justin Marshall or Andrew Mehrtens.
That will leave Reuben Thorne, Scott Robertson, Greg Somerville, Mark Robinson and Leon MacDonald in their plans for Saturday's match.
Coach Robbie Deans said: "They were the guys who were with us for the first round so they know what we've been doing."
Winless Otago, who travel to play North Harbour on Saturday night, were yesterday uncertain of their plans but they seem certain to rest loose forwards Taine Randell and Josh Kronfeld. That should leave Carl Hoeft, Kees Meeuws, Anton Oliver, Byron Kelleher, Tony Brown and Pita Alatini ready to play at least some part in the match at Albany.
North Harbour will play their test forwards, Ron Cribb and Troy Flavell, if the two players are primed to play.
Wellington will leave out fullback Christian Cullen, who has a hamstring injury, and Tana Umaga, who told the management yesterday that he had a groin problem. That should see Alama Ieremia and Jonah Lomu start against Northland in the capital on Sunday.
Cullen may need a few weeks of rest to ensure he is ready for the business end of the NPC season, but Umaga is not expected to be sidelined for as long.
Auckland, meanwhile, were unhappy that their training sessions this week were minus Dowd and Howlett, whose chance of a comeback on Saturday has probably been hurt by having to make a flying visit to Sydney.
"I don't want to make a big issue about it and I haven't talked to [All Black coach] Wayne Smith yet," coach Wayne Pivac said. "We expected to have the All Blacks back by Monday or Tuesday. It's very hard to pick players who have not been part of your training ... We have been looking to change a few things this week.
"We have a light training on Thursday and we travel on Friday, so our last full training is on Wednesday.
"That means Craig Dowd won't have taken part in any scrum or lineout training. Doug is a different situation because he was released, but it makes it very difficult to pick him when he has been away for three or four days."
North Harbour assistant coach Allan Pollock said it was always a problem slotting in players who had not trained during the week, but Harbour understood the need for an All Black debrief.
"We didn't know about the Sydney stopover but the All Blacks did need a good debrief. It's the end of the Tri-Nations and there are things that need tying up.
"Sure it's not great for us but the All Blacks are more important."
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