The emotion of closing New Zealand’s iconic “House of Pain” after disappointing performances there in recent years has fired up the All Blacks for tomorrow’s first Test against Wales.
“It should be buried in the appropriate way,” All Blacks coach Graham Henry said of the renowned Carisbrook ground, known as the House of Pain because of its reputation as a graveyard for visiting teams.
The All Blacks have lost only five of 37 Tests at the ground since 1908, but in a sharp reversal of fortune two of the defeats have been in the past two years.
South Africa won for the first time from eight starts in 2008 — in what was initially thought to be the last Carisbrook Test — and France followed in their first outing on the southern turf last year.
“We’ve sort of stuffed up the record, haven’t we,” said Henry, reflecting on Carisbrook’s history.
Wales, the only major rugby nation not to have played a Test at Carisbrook, and who have never won a Test anywhere in New Zealand, get their chance this weekend.
But they will face an All Blacks side determined to close the historic ground by re-igniting their winning ways.
“It hasn’t been much of a fortress for us the last couple of years, unfortunately. That’s got to be our aim to really put in a big one and leave it on a good note,” assistant coach Wayne Smith said.
“We’d like to leave that ground with fond memories,” Henry said.
Richie McCaw will captain the All Blacks in his 81st Test match and admits a victory is not guaranteed. McCaw’s first Test as captain was against Wales at Cardiff in 2004 where the All Blacks won 27-25, keeping alive a winning record against the Welsh which has endured for 21 Tests over 57 years.
McCaw says what worries him about Wales is its ability to exploit space and the fact the team has become more physical up front.
“In the Northern Hemisphere, they were the ones who led the ability to really exploit space. I guess that’s come from the influence of [New Zealanders] Steve Hansen and company coaching up there,” McCaw said.
“I think they’ve got a better feel for that and they’ve been a bit more physical up front in the last couple of years. It’s been a pretty good challenge so I think they’ll be a sterner test there,” he said.
The Welsh should pose less of a challenge to New Zealand than Ireland who beat Wales, as did France and England, in this year’s Six Nations Championship.
“There is no doubt that New Zealand have a very, very strong defense as they’ve proved in the last two times we’ve played them,” Wales assistant coach Shaun Edwards said.
“We’ve had a lot of field position, we’ve kicked penalties and we’ve come very close but we haven’t scored a try in our last two encounters so we’d like to think we can go one better this time and hopefully get a try or two,” he said.
New Zealand have made only one change to the team that beat Ireland last weekend, naming Victor Vito to make his first All Blacks start on the blindside flank in place of Jerome Kaino.
Wales have made three changes to the team that lost 34-31 to an under-strength South African side in Cardiff two weeks ago. Center Andrew Bishop replaces James Hook who has a shoulder injury, flanker Gavin Thomas replaces Sam Warburton and lock Alun Wyn Jones takes the place of Deiniol Jones who will be relegated to bench.
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