All Blacks to ring the changes as they prepare to face legend Ma’a Nonu

Former All Blacks legend Ma’a Nonu will front up against his former team for the Sharks in their Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour match in Durban on Tuesday. Picture: Steve Haag Sports/Gallo Images The All Blacks will be ringing the changes for their Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry (RGR) tour match against the Sharks at Kings Park in Durban on Tuesday night (kick-off 7:10pm), and are relishing coming face to face against former legend Ma’a Nonu. Nonu wasa surprise selectionwhen the Sharks named their team on Friday, and will feature off the bench, after his role when he joined them last week was defined as a short-term coaching and mentorship role.

However the 44-year-old will now line up against the team that he played over a hundred games for, and won back-to back World Cups with in 2011 and 2015, before his international career came to an end when he moved to Toulon in France, which made him ineligible. Patrick Tuipolotu, who captained the All Blacks intheir entertaining winover the Stormers in Cape Town on Sunday night, said he hoped to keep his place in the match 23, which would give him a chance to face Nonu. “I didn’t expect him to be named, but I’m looking forward to it.

A lot of the boys are close to him, so it’s no secret how long he’s played,” said Tuipulotu. “His career’s been this long because he’s a true professional, and he’s blessed to keep playing. It’ll be quite a spectacle to see him come up against us, and we’ll certainly look forward to that.

[paywall]

Might catch up with him midweek and give him a jab or two.” With them having a 44-man squad and wanting to get game time into every player, All Blacks coach Dave Rennie said their would be significant changes over the next two games, with them up against the Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday, while he also admitted to being pleased with theirhard-fought 38-21 winover the Stormers, and said that they could only get better from there. “There’ll be a handful of guys (from the Stormers match) who will back up, but there’ll be an enormous amount of changes. Likewise when we play the Bulls four days later,” explained Rennie.

“It’s exciting. We wanted to be flawless (against the Stormers), and we know we can be a lot better. We’ve only got to wait four days to get another crack at it. “I’m excited about the games that are coming up, and it will give us a pretty good indication of what our lineup will be for that first Test (against the Springboks).” Rennie was also asked if he was happy with the depth they were creating in comparison to the Springboks, but noted that it was still early days for them.

[/paywall]