Reds v Blues
Brisbane, 9.40pm tomorrow
Tony Woodcock may not be in peak condition but the decision to demote the international loosehead prop is one of the bigger shocks in the Blues recent spotty history.
The team needed a new centre to replace the injured Isaia Toeava and there were murmurs about tinkering with the loose
forward balance for tomorrow's visit to Brisbane to tangle with the Reds but Woodcock's shunt was unexpected.
He has played 86 games for the Blues and with senior lock Ali Williams invalided for the season, was depicted as a core forward to balance some of the side's inexperience.
"At this stage we have got all three of the All Blacks, for some reason or another coming back late, and the whole front row is not exactly at a hundred so we need to balance that out to ensure we have young Charlie Faumuina, who has been going since November and doing well," coach Pat Lam said.
"So it is about the challenge of the heat and humidity and working out what is the best team for this game.
"I think Woody's obviously the last player back and he is not at a hundred yet, and is building towards that, so we need everyone at a hundred and to have the right team to finish the game."
John Afoa has switched to loosehead prop and Faumuina, the bulky 23-year-old in just his second season of Super rugby, will anchor the tighthead side of the scrum.
In other changes, Rene Ranger will play centre with Toeava, Luke McAlister, Anthony Tuitavake and George Pisi not yet fit enough to start a game. Peter Saili gets his first start at No 8 in what is a close tussle with Viliami Ma'afu who began against the Hurricanes and Highlanders.
Ranger had been used at centre in several pre-season games as the Blues catered for injuries and the steady return from problems for Toeava.
"Rene has had the game time. At this stage, it is about balancing the guys who are coming back and guys who have been out there week to week," Lam said. "Rene did well last week so he is there."
Lam said that after some of the woes last season, he had learned to be a little more cautious about reintroducing those, like Tuitavake, who had been on the injured roster.
"This game will be a huge challenge. They are red-hot at the moment and we saw what they did to the Crusaders. We are going over there in February and playing an hour earlier than last week, too," said Lam. "But we have prepared well and the boys are up for it and they will need to be."
The coach said there were other players who were ready to start but he had to temper that need with some caution about making too many changes to the combinations. Conditions in Brisbane would put demands on all 22 players in the squad.
Remedial work had gone into last week's scrum and lineout defects.
"We have had a long hard session for the forwards and we realised we made a lot of those mistakes ourselves and we have certainly worked hard on that and, hopefully, we will see an improvement this week," Lam said.
REDS v BLUES:
Reds
Peter Hynes
Digby Ioane
Morgan Turinui
Anthony Faingaa
Rod Davies
Quade Cooper
Will Genia (c)
S Higginbotham
Daniel Braid
Jake Schatz
Van Humphries
Adam Byrnes
Laurie Weeks
Saia Faingaa
Ben Daley
Reserves: Sean Hardman, Greg Holmes, Robert Simmons, Leroy Houston, Richard Kingi, Tim Walsh, Will Chambers.
Blues
Paul Williams
Joe Rokocoko
Rene Ranger
Benson Stanley
Rudi Wulf
Stephen Brett
Alby Mathewson
Peter Saili
Serge Lilo
Jerome Kaino
Anthony Boric
Kurtis Haiu
Charlie Faumuina
K Mealamu (c)
John Afoa
Reserves: Tom McCartney, Tony Woodcock, Filo Paulo, Viliami Ma'afu, Chris Smylie, Daniel Kirkpatrick, Lachie Munro/George Pisi.