Trio of halfbacks, hookers likely for Cup, says Mitchell

6.15pm - By DANIEL GILHOOLY

Three halfbacks and three hookers could well be a feature of the All Blacks World Cup rugby squad, coach John Mitchell revealed today.

In his most candid discussion for some time about selection policy, Mitchell said the regulations for replacing injured players during the World Cup meant it made sense to provide extra cover in specialist positions.

A replacement player cannot join a squad until 48 hours after injury strikes.

"If you lose a player on a Friday or a Thursday that could create difficulty when selecting only two specialists," Mitchell said.

"We need to go through that particular regulation in more detail before we conclude on our selections."

Byron Kelleher, not a member of the Tri-Nations squad, was called in as reserve for last Saturday's test against the Springboks in place of Steve Devine, suggesting the Otago halfback would be a third No 9 in the World Cup squad.

Mitchell defended his decision to not subsequently give any field time to Kelleher, who has been omitted this week and will turn out for Otago in the NPC on Friday.

"That's our choice, as All Black selectors. In Dunedin we didn't get ahead enough to think we could change," Mitchell said.

"As it turned out the conditions weren't as slippery as we probably thought it would be.

"We've got plans in mind and there are reasons for our choices. Just because a player doesn't get on the field doesn't mean he's out of it."

A third hooker for the World Cup could come from one of Tom Willis, Corey Flynn or even Anton Oliver, dropped from the squad last month and replaced by Mark Hammett.

Mitchell said the 48-hour rule was a fair one as teams from the northern hemisphere should have the same opportunity to replace a player as hosts Australia or other teams in the Oceania region.

"That's quite a critical regulation really. A lot of the sides will pay a lot of attention to that in terms of their selection."

Mitchell names his 30-man World Cup squad on August 25 and admitted the selection of extra halfback and hooker specialists could leave them "thin" in other areas, most notably loose forward.

"That comes down to the utility cover within the mix," he said.

"When you actually look at the forwards closely, there is a lot of utility mix among there.

"This is probably one of the best back mixes we've come across in terms of utility. There's a lot of coverage there."

Mitchell said Brad Thorn, who has only played at lock this season, could potentially cover if two loose forwards were injured during a test.

Another option could be to select a squad weighted 17-13 in favour of forwards rather than the accepted 16-14 mix.

Mitchell said New Zealand had an advantage over other nations as they had a national domestic competition -- the NPC -- running in the period leading up to the World Cup.

He would use the opening two weeks to pinpoint player form and finalise his World Cup squad.

Subsequent weeks would be a chance to give squad members matchplay although he did not want to discuss the specifics of how he would inject players into the NPC until after this Saturday's Bledisloe Cup test at Eden Park.

- NZPA