Rugby: Smylie to start crunch match for the Blues

Chris Smylie (centre) has done his time on the bench and will make his first start this season. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Blues halfback Chris Smylie will make his first Super 15 start this season in tomorrow's must-win meeting with the Highlanders.

Smylie has appeared six times from the pine but occasional All Black Alby Mathewson has dominated the starting role while Toby Morland began the drawn meeting with the Force.

For this crunch Eden Park match, Mathewson has struggled to overcome the effects of concussion he suffered against the Crusaders and is due to take another psychometric exam today to see whether he can play a role from the bench.

So Smylie will make his 42nd appearance for the Blues, the versatile Lachie Munro fills the left wing position vacated by the injured Rene Ranger and a fit Peter Saili returns at No 8 in the changes to the Blues for this crucial clash.

"Alby took a head knock and hasn't been able to train," coach Pat Lam said. "The medical staff are confident he will be right for the game but with that in mind and Chris Smylie making a good impact from the bench, we wanted the halfback to train fully with the team so Chris will start."

There had been some thought to picking flanker Daniel Braid on the bench but he will make his comeback through club rugby instead.

The Blues have restricted their onfield activities this week to a solitary fullblown session yesterday as they increased their recovery and blackboard sessions after the gruelling tussle with the Crusaders.

Their focus has been on a performance to emulate most of that match and to get a victory which has eluded them in four straight matches. How would they achieve that reversal?

"Perform, accuracy, bring the attitude we had last week which was a big improvement and really concentrate on our process," Lam said. "As we went through [review] it was only some soft tries - it was a fine line in all the games we have lost hence the bonus points."

While All Black coach Graham Henry mentioned his anxiety about the consistency of refereeing standards, Lam said he had not been told of any changes for the final qualifying round.

So would the Blues maintain the rage they showed in Timaru or regain it for tomorrow?

"It's not hard at all. The boys know what is on the line and there is enough plums if we do the job for everyone to get excited and again there is a lot of confidence which came out of last week and we have done a lot of work tidying up the details."


The Blues were just content to be first out of the blocks for this final round.

"We know what we have to do. We win, we will have a home game simple as that, whether that is [qualifying] at two, three or four, we don't know that yet, but it will be a home game," Lam said.

The task would not be straightforward even though the Highlanders were out of the playoffs and shipped a big loss last round.

They would be primed for their final flourish.

Changing weather and injuries to players meant altering game plans. The Blues had suffered through some indifferent tactical kicking and that needed to sharpen for the remainder of the tournament.

Some rain was forecast for Eden Park tomorrow.

Eden Park, 7.35pm tomorrow

BLUES

Jared Payne
Joe Rokocoko
Benson Stanley
Luke McAlister
Lachie Munro
Stephen Brett
Chris Smylie
Peter Saili
Luke Braid
Jerome Kaino
Ali Williams
Anthony Boric
John Afoa
Keven Mealamu (c)
Charlie Faumuina

Blues: Tom McCartney, Tevita Mailau, Chris Lowrey, Sean Polwart, Alby Mathewson, Winston Stanley, Sherwin Stowers.

HIGHLANDERS

Ben Smith
Matt Saunders
Kendrick Lynn
Shaun Treeby
Siale Piutau
Tony Brown
Jimmy Cowan
Nasi Manu
Alando Soakai
Adam Thomson
Tom Donnelly
Jarrad Hoeata
Chris King
Jason Rutledge
J Mackintosh (c)

Highlanders: Mo Schwalger, Bronson Murray, Josh Bekhuis, Nick Crosswell, Aaron Smith, Robbie Robinson, Telusa Veainu.