Quiet Weepu prepared to turn it up against Gregan

Piri Weepu

Rookie All Blacks halfback Piri Weepu has been fitted with a new mouthguard but it's not the physicality of tomorrow's Tri-Nations/Bledisloe Cup rugby match that has the Wellingtonian on edge.

Weepu will start just his second test thanks to Byron Kelleher's concussion after being pole-axed by Springboks' lock Victor Matfield in Cape Town last weekend.

The newcomer is understandably anxious not to let vastly experienced Wallabies captain George Gregan mess with him at Telstra Stadium.

With a test career in its infancy, and one awkward head-to-head battle with Gregan as a reference point, the nuggety 21-year-old admitted he could easily be overawed against a World Cup-winner earning his 112th cap.

"I had better come with my A-game or I might get shown up," the softly spoken Weepu said.

"He has been around a long time. With that many caps comes experience and things like that. He has got all that on me, but hopefully I'll just focus on what I have to do and things will go well."

Weepu does not hold particularly fond memories of their first meeting in Canberra last year, where the ACT Brumbies walloped the Hurricanes 46-25 in the Super 12.

"I guess I was slightly intimidated in my first year, it was the way he spoke, 'Weepu's kicking' and things like that. Little things like that make you think: 'What's this guy up to?"'

While Gregan is never reluctant to get in an opponent's -- or referee's -- ear, Weepu practically converses in a whisper: a trait rare among halfbacks.

"I sort of go into my shell a bit, but once the game gets going I open up. I'm pretty much a shy person, but when I get barked at by the coaches I guess I have to do what I'm supposed to do.

"I've been improving over the last year or two. This is a sort of new thing to me," said Weepu, who admits the illustrious company he keeps can also be daunting.

"You can't just open your mouth like you've been here (in the All Blacks) for a long time. When the time's right it will happen."

Telstra Stadium looms as an ideal opportunity to assert himself as the All Blacks look to regroup and kick-start their Tri-Nations campaign and retain the Bledisloe Cup without having to rely on victory at Eden Park on September 3.

He made a step in the right direction when he was thrust onto Newlands with the All Blacks 0-13 down after 10 minutes.

"I'm playing okay I guess. There were a few things I could have done to help the team, have a little bit more communication with the boys and letting them know what to do."

Weepu is one of four All Blacks starters -- five if Conrad Smith replaces the doubtful Tana Umaga, whose ankle is subject to a fitness test -- who has never played against the Wallabies.

Yet he is well aware of the intensity of a battle for trans-Tasman supremacy.

"They are pretty much our rivals and we are their rivals," he said.

"They have come from South Africa, losing two games over there. They will be wanting to prove a point here.

"If they want to pull off a win on their home turf, they'll have to come out to play."

Weepu said while he sympathised with Kelleher's predicament, he was determined to make the All Black No 9 jersey his own.

"Hopefully I can maintain my form or slowly work away at him like he worked away at (Justin) Marshall."

Meanwhile, reserve halfback Kevin Senio has been dividing his time between a computer screen and the training paddock as backline coach Wayne Smith runs him through the moves.

"We animate the moves. It's like watching a cue ball with numbers go round a pool table," Smith explained.

He was confident Senio, who played for the Junior All Blacks here in June, would have no trouble absorbing the moves as they were similar to those employed by the second-tier team.

- NZPA