Dewes thrown in at deep end

Spare a thought for Aden Dewes ahead of tomorrow's clash with Canterbury at Toll Stadium.
Dewes will make his first start for Northland this season at second-five-eighth - lining up against former Kiwi league international Sonny Bill Williams.
The 25-year-old Dewes has been elevated to the Taniwha starting side after the in-form Aaron Bancroft turned an ankle at training on Tuesday.
The Wellsford player was a regular starter for the Taniwha in 2008 but was forced to spend the 2009 season on the sidelines after undergoing an ACL reconstruction.
His place in the team last year was taken by Derek Carpenter, but the Mid Northern player also picked up a season-ending injury playing club rugby earlier this season, encouraging Northland coach Bryce Woodward to look for a replacement.
He tempted Bancroft north from Otago and the second-five eighths has turned out to be one of the most consistent players in the competition to date, with fantastic defence and an ability to find space in any opposition backline, making him one of the first names on the team sheet every week.
Not surprisingly, Dewes has struggled to get onto the paddock - but he has the chance now - and most of New Zealand will be watching as he joins skipper Jared Payne in the centres to go up against Williams and Robbie Fruean - surely one of the biggest centre pairings in world rugby.
Payne said the changes that Northland were making to the team that beat Southland 33-22 offered a good opportunity to the replacements.
"It's a shame that Aaron has picked up an injury but Aden has played pretty well for us in the past so he gets some game time and that's something he's been waiting for obviously," he said.
The other change sees Mateo Malupo also get his first start in the competition, with the Western Sharks speedster playing on the right wing - in a reshuffled backline that is compensating for Rene Ranger's absence in Sydney with the All Blacks.
The Northland captain said that even with an injury hit side, Canterbury will bring a strong team north and the ability to make one-on-one tackles will be the key again for the Taniwha if they want to beat the competition leaders.
"We'll be concentrating on our defence again, if we can shut them then we've got a good enough attack to hopefully score a few points against them," he said.
"With the new rules it's tough to get turnovers so you just have to keep tackling and hope that our system is good enough to contain them."
Payne said it was impossible not to feel some sympathy for the Canterbury players. "Yeah, it's not a good place down there at the moment," he said.
Payne, who has signed for the Blues next season after completing two seasons for the Crusaders, spent much of the week in Christchurch helping his partner clean up their house after it was damaged in the earthquake.
"We got off pretty lightly, the chimney had fallen down and a few other things but that was nothing compared with some of the people down there," he said.
Northland: 15 Lachie Munro, 14 Mateo Malupo, 13 Jared Payne (c), 12 Aden Dewes, 11 Iwi Hauraki, 10 David Holwell, 9 Rhyan Caine 8 Cam Eyre, 7 Dan Pryor, 6 Dean Budd, 5 Mark Burman, 4 Pat O'Connor, 3 Bronson Murray, 2 Tim Dow, 1 Matt Wallis. Reserves: 16 Mikaele Tuu'u, 17 Ross Wright, 18 Roy Griffin, 19 Cam Goodhue, 20 Luke Hamilton, 21 Adam Clarke, 22 Brock Mustard.
Canterbury: 15 Sean Maitland, 14 Patrick Osborne, 13 Robbie Fruean, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Telusa Veainu, 10 Stephen Brett, 9 Andy Ellis, 8 Ash Parker, 7 George Whitelock (c), 6 Matt Todd, 5 Isaac Ross, 4 Luke Romano, 3 Peter Borlase, 2 Steve Fualau, 1 Wyatt Crockett. Reserves: 16 Marcel Cummings-Toon, 17 Andrew Olorenshaw, 18 Rob Verbakel, 19 Brendon O'Connor, 20 Willi Heinz, 21 Sam Monaghan, 22 Robbie Flynn.