All Blacks vs France - Preview

Here's the team for us vs France this morning.

1. Wyatt Crockett 2. Dane Coles, 3. Owen Franks, 4. Luke Romano, 5. Brodie Retallick, 6. Liam Messam, 7.Sam Cane, 8. Kieran Read -captain, 9. Aaron Smith, 10. Aaron Cruden, 11.Julian Savea, 12. Ma'a Nonu, 13. Conrad Smith, 14.Ben Smith, 15. Israel Dagg

Reserves: 16. Keven Mealamu. 17. Ben Franks, 18. Ben Afeaki, 19. Jeremy Thrush, 20. Victor Vito, 21. Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 22. Beauden Barrett, 23. Rene Ranger.

Sam Cane is in for a tough game. I'm a fan of his but Dussatoir is pretty amazing, so we may have trouble getting and keeping the ball today. Still Richie isn't going to play forever and Sam needs to play against the best. I would have liked to see Ben Smith at fullback where he has played spectacularly this year. Bench Dagg and find some room somewhere to Ranger to have a run at people. He's devastating at the moment, breaking the line with regularity.

Cruden should probably be the starting 10 now if we are to win the next world cup (there is no point relying then on Dan to play). The only point of contention is Dan Coles at hooker, but again if we are to win the next world cup, we can't rely on our veterans to still be playing then). Our strength lies with Ma'a and the beautiful Conrad Smith and it is (if we have enough ball) where the game will be won.

It's about as good as we could front up with now given the injuries to some (Carter, Weepu, Whitelock, Jane) and sabatticals granted to others (Richie).

France were woeful in the 6 nations - wooden spooning it up with awful rugby, mostly created by Michalak who is as past it as it is possible to be. I note with some alarm that the team we are playing today bears almost no resemblance to the one that featured in the Northern Hemisphere last season.

Slugso over at Rugger Blogger has made an awesome graphic comparing relative playing caps strength and it reveals some interesting facts about the two lineups. The two teams are much more even in national team playing time that it would appear at first glance.

We're in rebuilding mode, but so are they. We were terrible in our last game against England and it sounded the death knell for a few players (Williams), but they were terrible in their last games too. On paper home advantage should be enough for us but when have the French ever given that any thought?

I expect it to be close. Maybe they'll win this first one and public support will have to drive us through to win the next two...