All Blacks: Waiting on Sivivatu

Sitiveni Sivivatu remains the only missing piece of the All Blacks' end of year rugby tour jigsaw puzzle after rehabilitating hooker Andrew Hore joined the overnight flight to Hong Kong yesterday.

The former first choice No 2 was originally expected to stay in New Plymouth and play for Taranaki but that scenario did not eventuate after the province narrowly missed the national semifinals, which Sivivatu will contest with Waikato as a final fitness test on his reconstructed shoulder before the wing joins the tour in London.

Hore was on board before Taranaki's fate was determined yesterday and will continue his recovery from a shoulder dislocation when the team train for the first time tomorrow.

All Blacks head coach Graham Henry indicated Hore would ideally add to his 47 caps against Scotland at Murrayfield on November 14 - the second leg of the Grand Slam attempt.

"He's preparing. I would think he'd come off the bench against Scotland at some stage," said Henry after the 29-man squad touched down in Hong Kong ahead of Saturday's fourth and final Bledisloe Cup test of 2010.

Hore has not played since suffering the injury in the final round of the Super 14 in May but his experience and leadership was always identified as a critical component of the five-test tour regardless of how much game time he logs.

The hooking role looms as a potential problem area for the All Blacks considering Keven Mealamu has been nursing a calf injury since the end of the Tri-Nations on September 11 and has been unable to play for Auckland.

He is slated to start against the Wallabies while Hawkes Bay's Hika Elliot will make his test debut if, and when, required.

Henry conceded Mealamu's fitness was a prime concern - alongside Daniel Carter's ankle - but was confident the 80-cap veteran was on track to face the Wallabies.

"He played 40 minutes yesterday and he was fine," said Henry in relation to the All Blacks' final hit out in Auckland.

Carter was also in contention to start at first five-eighth, although he confessed he was far from 100 per cent match fit after Saturday's opposed training session.

"The game is very fast and [yesterday] I was struggling to keep up. I'm a bit unfit at the moment, the lungs were blowing a bit," he said.

Carter, who underwent surgery after the Tri-Nations title-clinching test at Soweto in August, will be carefully monitored during the All Blacks' first training session tomorrow in energy-sapping humidity.

Richie McCaw and Kieran Read are other members of the squad to have bypassed provincial duty for Canterbury, leading Henry to acknowledge many of his players may be lacking sharpness when they attempt to increase their record transtasman winning streak to 11.

"They are a bit under done but we have to get the balance right," he said.

"Over the next 12 months they have a huge amount of rugby to play. They've got five tests [now], Super rugby pre-season, Super rugby, four tests [Tri-Nations] and then the World Cup. It's just madness if they try and play all the time."

The All Blacks were in camp for three days before departure, a stark contrast to the Wallabies who assembled in Sydney three weeks ago.

The majority of All Blacks shook off jetlag at a joint fans day with their Australian rivals - a low-key turnout emphasising the difficulty the Hong Kong Rugby Union has encountered promoting their second Bledisloe test.

About 22,000 tickets have been sold leaving about 18,000 still available for the match at Hong Kong Stadium.

It is not yet known if Sonny Bill Williams will be an added attraction, with the All Blacks selectors waiting until Thursday to announce their 22-man squad.

Williams may not have a profile in Hong Kong, and Henry was keen to maintain that status.

"We don't want to make him a special case though every time I go to a media session there's talk about Sonny Bill Williams.

"He's just acting like another person in the 30. He's settled in well, he's a good pro," Henry said.

- NZPA