Old rivals set to kick off with a blast

Coach Steve Hansen believes Canterbury cannot afford a slow start in today's Ranfurly Shield defence against Wellington.

It has been 45 years since Wellington lifted the Log o' Wood off Canterbury in Christchurch.

Their last attempt ended in abject failure in 1995 when Canterbury thrashed an upbeat, over-hyped side 66-17.

But Wellington have had wood - if not the log - on Canterbury in more recent years, winning the past three clashes between the two old rivals.

The one that hurt most was last year's NPC final, when Wellington travelled to Christchurch and won 34-29.

Against all predictions last October, Wellington won the early exchanges up front, with their tight five and loose trio outpointing their Canterbury opponents, who included seven All Blacks.

After an absolutely positively capital first half, Wellington led 20-12 and held off a fast-finishing Canterbury to clinch their first national title in 14 years.

Red and black fans prefer to remember the 1995 shield defence, when the home team started like a runaway train, sparked by gnarly prop Richard Loe, who crashed over for a try in the fifth minute.

A similar start is needed by Canterbury today. Wellington also insist they need a fast start.

"For almost 60 minutes [last year] they dominated, but over the last 25 minutes the game swung back our way," Hansen said yesterday.

"We've got to impose ourselves on the game very early. We all know that Wellington like to do that to the opposition.

"We know we've got to involve ourselves and take the game to them rather than sit back and let them."

Hansen is mindful of history, but he said the NPC final "was last season, so it doesn't really have a lot of relevance to this year's game."

But, with the shield at stake, he admits "the volume has been turned up" in the Canterbury camp this week.

"We're coming into a part of the season where we play at home four times in a row and every one of them is going to be a big match.

"But we're just concentrating on this game. We know we have to play well - but then so do the opposition."

Wellington have a wealth of potential match-winners in their backline - in particular All Black stars Christian Cullen, Tana Umaga and Jonah Lomu.

Lomu scored two tries in last year's final, and Jade Stadium has been a happy hunting ground for Cullen, who seems to reserve his best performances for games against Canterbury or the Crusaders.

"But they don't just have one or two blokes, they've got a whole team of them," Hansen said.

"They work hard for each other just like we do.

"There's a lot of talent in the Wellington side, but there's an awful lot of talent in our side too.

"Our blokes are very keen to go out and perform well this weekend. We're not over-confident, but we're not under-confident either."

Although All Black prop Greg Somerville is fighting fit, Hansen and co-coach Aussie McLean have kept faith in props David Hewett and Greg Feek after their good form in recent games.

"We're very happy with the way everyone in the front row has been going. Greg [Somerville] will get game time - he's had a busy campaign," Hansen said.

Exciting young openside flanker Richard McCaw returns to the team after having last weekend off.

He scored three tries in an impressive display against Otago the previous week .

The return of skipper Todd Blackadder should ensure the Canterbury pack stick to a basics-first, frills-later policy against a Wellington forward unit containing tough customers such as Jerry Collins, Filo Tiatia, Dion Waller and South African prop Morne van der Merwe.

Defence has been Canterbury's cornerstone in recent years and it will again be vital in snuffing out or slowing the supply of ball to Wellington's game-breakers out wide.

Canterbury goalkicker Ben Blair and Wellington counterpart David Holwell have a chance to bring up a century of points today. Holwell has 95 and Blair 93.

Blackadder remembers Wellington's last shield challenge against the red-and-blacks "as if it was yesterday."

The capital city team came to Christchurch six years ago openly confident of taking the shield from the team who lifted it from them 13 years earlier.

Instead, they were beaten by that record score of 66-17, and were never really in the game after the opening scrums, when Loe destroyed his opposite, Bill Cavubati.

"Richard [Loe] was spitting tacks that day. I think he'd been eating raw steak in the days before," Blackadder said.

"That game was a pretty good effort by us. We were committed and fired up and we need to be like that again this weekend."

Canterbury's last four round-robin games are at home and all are shield defences, a chance to provide Scotland-bound Blackadder with a fitting farewell.

- NZPA