Test match: New Zealand coach Graham Henry has ordered his players to forget about trying to score an avalanche of points against Canada in their one-off Test in Hamilton today.
The All Blacks are overwhelming favourites to win the match by a massive margin against a Canadian team that looks horribly outclassed. But Henry has warned his players to resist the temptation of trying to pile on the points at any expense, telling them he wants them to stick to their game plan and play normally.
"It's the quality of the performance really, the scoreboard will be immaterial," Henry said yesterday. "We're just concentrating on us, we concentrated on us in the French series as well.
"It's just a matter of trying to get our game back to where it was at the end of last season. We set that objective and hopefully we can strike it."
The All Blacks have been in devastating form in their two matches this season, thrashing France 42-11 and 61-10, but are using the game against Canada to experiment with new combinations in preparation for this year's World Cup.
Henry has made 11 changes to the team that demolished the French last week but the enormous depth and competition for places in the New Zealand side means there will be no respite for the Canadians.
"We were hoping they'd name their top side, it would be good for us to know we played the absolute best team they could put out," Canada prop Kevin Tkachuk said. "It's probably a bad thing for us."
Meanwhile, Canada's captain Morgan Williams admits their aim will be to keep the score down.
"We haven't arrived here with any ideas of grandeur," Williams said yesterday. "It'll probably be 80 minutes of defence. We can't beat them but we'll try and keep the score respectable.
"When you go against the All Blacks you just hope to play the best that you can and work on things that are going to take us through to the World Cup.
"A lot of the guys will be in awe standing in front of the haka. It's a scary time but they'll learn a lot."
New Zealand v Canada at Hamilton, 8.30 am ON TV: Sky Sports 2
ALL BLACKS: M Muliaina; D Howlett, L McAlister, A Mauger, S Sivivatu; D Carter, B Kelleher; J Collins, C Masoe, R Thorne (capt); R Filipo, T Flavell; N Tialata, A Hore, J Schwalger. Replacements: K Mealamu, C Hayman, R So'oialo, R McCaw, P Weepu, R Gear, L MacDonald.
CANADA: M Pyke; J Mensah-Coker, C Culpan, D Spicer, J Pritchard; R Smith, M Williams (capt); SM Stephen, S McKeen, C Yukes; M Burak, L Tait; S Franklin, P Riordan, K Tkachuk. Replacements: A Carpenter, D Pletch, M Pletch, J Jacson, A Kleeberger, D Van Camp, E Fairhurst.
