Shield holders roll out heavy hitters for shield defence

By CHRIS RATTUE

Ranfurly Shield holders Canterbury will be back to full strength for tonight's final defence of the season against Otago.

All Blacks Andrew Mehrtens and Caleb Ralph have overcome hamstring injuries after missing last weekend's win over Taranaki.

Canterbury coach Aussie McLean has brought Ralph in for Marika Vunibaka and switched Joe Maddock back to the right wing.

Mehrtens will take over at first five-eighths from Dan Carter, who joins Nathan Mauger on the reserves bench.

All Black openside flanker Richard McCaw will return to the side of the scrum in place of Johnny Leo'o, who started against Taranaki.

The Canterbury side is the strongest McLean and co-coach Ian Mallard can field from the present NPC squad.

Otago have also been boosted by the return of lock Filipo Levi from a shoulder injury.

"It's good to have him back and good to be able to get back to our original team," Otago co-coach Wayne Graham said.

Levi and fullback Neil Brew pulled out of last week's match against Auckland and were missed as Otago crashed to a 50-26 loss at Eden Park.

Brew's return means Fijian Seru Rabeni reverts to the left wing and Romi Ropati will be back on the reserves bench.

Levi will take over the tighthead lock berth from a former Canterbury player, Peter Bowden, who played for the red-and-blacks last year in a shield game against his old second-division province, Nelson Bays.

Graham said the week's lead-up had been "a bit patchy" for Otago.

The game is close to being a sellout, with just 2000 of the 34,500 tickets still available.

But only 620 had been sold to Otago fans.

Second-placed Canterbury (30 points) will clinch an NPC home semifinal with a win. Otago (third, 28 points) could still host a semifinal if they beat Canterbury.

First-division leaders Waikato have 34 points and need just one more against cellar-dwellers Bay of Plenty today to finish as top qualifiers.

Waikato's Paul Honiss will referee today's shield match. He was also in charge last season when Canterbury beat Otago in the NPC final.

Teams:

Canterbury: Ben Blair, Joe Maddock, Mark Robinson, Aaron Mauger (co-capt), Caleb Ralph, Andrew Mehrtens, Justin Marshall, Scott Robertson, Richard McCaw, Sam Broomhall, Norm Maxwell, Chris Jack, Greg Somerville, Mark Hammett (co-capt), David Hewett. Res: Nathan Mauger, Daniel Carter, Ben Hurst, Johnny Leo'o, Matt Dalzell, Chris King, Laurence Corlett.

Otago: Neil Brew, Aisea Tuilevu, Ryan Nicholas, Seilala Mapusua, Seru Rabeni, Blair Feeney, Danny Lee, Taine Randell (capt), Josh Blackie, Kelvin Middleton, Simon Maling, Filipo Levi, Carl Hayman, Jason MacDonald, Carl Hoeft. Res: Nick Fisher, Joe McDonnell, Peter Bowden, Sam Harding, Cory Brown, Sam Young, Romi Ropati.

Referee: Paul Honiss. Kickoff: 7.35pm.