KEY POINTS:
Until the end of last year, Sitiveni Sivivatu matched "cuzzie" Joe Rokocoko's test try-scoring rate.
The Fijian flyer had averaged a try a game in his 21 tests and given the All Blacks a lethal threat on both flanks since becoming an international player in 2005. But this
season the tries havedried up.
Whether it has been the new rules, several leg injuries, tactical changes or plain circumstance, Sivivatu is not certain why he has picked up only two tries in eight outings this season - zip, nada, nothing in his past six tests, while prop Tony Woodcock has bagged a double.
All Black tries have been in short supply for the back four throughout the Tri-Nations though, the outside backs scoring just two tries in five test matches.
"It all seems quite different this year," Sivivatu said in Brisbane.
"The rules do seem to limit you doing a lot of stuff while we are doing a lot of covering, chasing, helping out and being on guard all the time with more kicking in the games.
"Kicking seems to have increased almost 100 per cent because teams do not want to get caught with the ball deep in their own territory."
The changes in the game had not dented Sivivatu's enjoyment but he did acknowledge that patience had become much more of a virtue with the rule changes.
He had also spent more time on sharpening his kicking game for those times when he needed to belt the ball towards some safety at the other end of the field.
The wing was not disturbed by his scoring rate slowing down nor did he think it was a trend which would continue with the law changes. It was just circumstance, the trick was to stay patient and wait for a change in his fortune.
The drought would be reversed it was a case of staying calm and concentrated for those chances.
"The game is still the same, it is just a little bit faster than we were used to," he said.
Sivivatu had undergone some intensive training for the past few weeks after injuring his ankle during the shut out of the Springboks at Cape Town. "I strained the ligament that holds the two bones together but it feels fine now, it feels strong because I have done a great deal of rehab."
Sivivatu has been the go-to wing for the All Blacks this year with Rokocoko sidelined because of surgery to repair a wrist problem.
Anthony Tuitavake, Rudi Wulf and Richard Kahui have been used on the other flank with Kahui picked again for tomorrow's test in Brisbane.
The selectors will be monitoring Rokocoko's fitness and form with the big wing back playing for Auckland in the domestic competition and intent on regaining his place in the touring group for the end of year tour.
