Wynne Gray: Switches on World Cup wings worrying

Ma'a Nonu. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

Several All Blacks will reach for unfamiliar jerseys from the dressing room pegs tomorrow at Eden Park.

Positional switches for Ma'a Nonu, Richard Kahui and Isaia Toeava underline their versatility but raise questions about the need for late changes. It smells of experiment, which seems a strange scenario after four years of similar analysis.

It is perhaps an eerie flashback to 2007 when Mils Muliaina was used at centre, Luke McAlister alternated between first and second five-eighths and Nick Evans played five eighths and fullback.

Toeava, Cory Jane and Zac Guildford were chosen as World Cup wings a fortnight ago but only Toeava gets a run in that role tomorrow.

What does that say to you and me and the teams playing the All Blacks in this tournament?

It does not deliver a glowing endorsement about the original picks or those who chose them. Flawed selections before kickoff. Sheesh.

It says the All Black selectors want more size and power from their wings after the way they were shown up in the confrontations in the air and in contact against the Wallabies in Brisbane.

They feel bulk will be necessary against Tonga and may also be the answer the deeper the side goes into the tournament.

It shows a certain twitch about an area of All Black play which used to be a strength when Joe Rokocoko, Doug Howlett and Sitiveni Sivivatu were crashing round at the last World Cup.

Rokocoko and Sivivatu have lost some sting and Rene Ranger is injured but Hosea Gear has speed, can stand in the tackle and would have sharpened quickly after his injury layoff. If Kahui was picked on the wing then Robbie Fruean could have bulked up the centre choices.

The "enforced" wing switches may prove a godsend now and further into the tournament but they also suggest World Cup selections demand different choices allied to form and history.