All Blacks and Wallabies for Fifth Tri-Nations Test

The Wallaby and All Black teams have been named to play the fifth Tri-Nations test and second Bledisloe Cup game of 2010. The match will take place on Saturday the 7th of August at 7.35pm, local time at AMI Stadium in Christchurch

Wallabies:

15 Kurtley Beale, 14 James O’Connor, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Anthony Faingaa, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Will Genia; 8 Richard Brown, 7 David Pocock, 6 Rocky Elsom (capt), 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Dean Mumm, 3 Salesi Ma’afu, 2 Saia Faingaa, 1 Benn Robinson.

Reserves: 16 Stephen Moore, 17 James Slipper, 18 Rob Simmons, 19 Matt Hodgson, 20 Luke Burgess, 21 Berrick Barnes, 22 Cameron Shepherd.

All Blacks:

15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma’a Nonu, 11 Joe Rokocoko, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Piri Weepu; 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Tom Donnelly, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock.

Reserves: 16 Corey Flynn, 17 Ben Franks, 18 Sam Whitelock, 19 Victor Vito, 20 Alby Mathewson, 21 Aaron Cruden, 22 Benson Stanley.

Points of Interest:

If the All Blacks win they will retain the Bledisloe Cup for 2010.

The Wallabies have lost the last 8 test matches in a row against the All Blacks.

The All Blacks defeated the Wallabies 49-28 in Melbourne last weekend.

Jimmy Cowan suffered rib cartilage damage in that match and has been replaced by Piri Weepu in the only change to the All Black starting 15. Alby Mathewson joins the reserves bench. The only other change is Benson Stanley replacing Israel Dagg on the bench.

Tony Woodcock will overtake former team mate Greg Somerville as the most capped All Black prop, with 67 caps. He has scored 6 test tries, with 5 of them being against the Wallabies.

Ma’a Nonu will play his 50th test. He first debuted for the All Blacks against England in 2003. He has started 29 of the 31 tests since the 2007 World Cup.

Kurtley Beale and the Faingaa twins have been promoted to the starting Wallaby line-up. Kurley Beale starts at fullback, with Adam Ashley-Cooper moving to centre to replace the injured Rob Horne. Hooker Stephen Moore and Second-Five Berrick Barnes drop to the bench to be replaced by Saia Faingaa and Anthony Faingaa respectively.

The Faingaa twins became the 40th set of brothers and third set of twins to play for the Wallabies. This will be their first start together.

Cameron Shepherd comes onto the bench for possibly his first cap since 2008