Punches fly at Maori training

Coach Matt Te Pou is delighted with the vigorous attitude of his players as they prepare to battle Australia, reports CHRIS RATTUE.

Fists flew as the Maori continued their build-up for one of the biggest games in their history against the world champion Australians in Sydney on Saturday night.

After a fiery session at the Avondale Racecourse yesterday, Maori coach Matt Te Pou conceded he had not witnessed so many punches being thrown at a Maori training during his six years in charge.

In an unrelated matter, the Maori are understood to be upset that their six All Black training squad members were put through such vigorous sessions at the national academy in Palmerston North on Monday, because it has disrupted what is a very limited preparation time anyway.

Troy Flavell, Norm Maxwell and Mark Cooksley all arrived in Auckland yesterday with injuries that affected their participation in their first Maori training session.

Flavell missed it entirely because of a knee problem.

But while the Maori have kept a public lid on their dissatisfaction, there was no hiding other conflicts when national training squad member Ron Cribb landed a decent punch to the side of the head of Blues team-mate Paul Thomson at the end of the two-hour session at the racecourse.

Cribb had stumbled out of a maul and immediately sought out prop Thomson, which brought an admiring response from assistant coach Jim Love, who said: "It's war out there."

Coach Te Pou later said he called an end to the dispute before it went further, mindful that he already had enough injury problems to deal with.

His main concern was that if Cribb repeated such an obvious act in the open in Sydney on Saturday night, he would be sent from the field by South African referee Mark Lawrence, who will be assisted by fellow South Africans Tappe Henning and Jonathan Kaplan.

Minutes after this latest battle of the bridge, Harbour's Cribb and Auckland's Thomson ambled off towards their hotel together, with the smaller figure of Canterbury's Greg Feek in between - hostilities at an end.

Te Pou conceded there had been at least two other punches thrown in more secretive places during the training.

"I suppose each of the guys is defending the line ... sometimes niggly things happen," said Te Pou, who was delighted that his players were producing the type of attitude that would be needed in Sydney.

The Maori announce their side today and it is clear that Carlos Spencer will be at fullback. The All Black first five-eighths, sidelined by a knee injury for the past five Super 12 games, has played in three club games and was at fullback for Ponsonby last weekend.

The toughest selection decisions are in the forwards. Cribb is the All Black No 8, yet Deon Muir, who plays only in that position, is the Maori captain.

The log-jam of All Black training squad members is around lock and loose forward, and Cribb, Flavell, Taine Randell, Cooksley and Maxwell cannot all start.

Saturday night's match will be the first big game involving the new international rule which allows mauls to remain static for five seconds before they must advance. This aims to force forwards into tight situations rather than spreading out in defensive lines.

Te Pou expects the maul to be a big part of Australia's game plan, but would not say how much part it would play when the Maori had the ball.

The Maori training sessions had already shown that players were not instinctively heading into mauls on defence, and were instead staying in the defensive line, he said.

Australian coach Rod Macqueen yesterday named a full-strength side for the match. The area of obvious inexperience is in the front row where uncapped props Ben Darwin and Nick Stiles are included.

With Bill Young and Fletcher Dyson injured, Australia are considering recalling Patricio Noriega, who has been playing club rugby in Europe.

Macqueen has left out the lesser lights in terms of test rugby from the original 31-man squad.

They include Graeme Bond, James Holbeck, Justin Harrison, Rod Moore, Phil Waugh and Nathan Sharpe.

The injury-prone Ben Tune, suspended Owen Finegan and injured Young are the others missing.

Waugh, in particular, was hoping to play in this game. His uncle, Northlander Laly Haddon, played for the Maori team in the 1960s and 70s.

He apparently will go to Sydney to watch the match.

Australia (from): Matt Burke, Chris Latham, Joe Roff, Andrew Walker, Daniel Herbert, Nathan Grey, Elton Flatley, Stephen Larkham, George Gregan, Chris Whitaker; Toutai Kefu, David Lyons, George Smith, Matt Cockbain, Mark Connors, John Eales (c), David Giffin, Glenn Panoho, Nick Stiles, Ben Darwin, Jeremy Paul, Michael Foley.

* The match will be covered live by Sky Sport One from 8.55 pm.