Weepu to lead Wellington
Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:15
Discarded All Blacks scrum-half Piri Weepu will lead Wellington into the Air New Zealand Cup final against Auckland in the absence of regular skipper Tamati Ellison at Eden Park on Saturday. Ellison was ruled out of the title match with a fractured eye socket suffered in the semi-final against Canterbury last Friday. The centre's injury has now forced Lions coach Aussie McLean to make a few adjustments to the backline which now sees Ma'a Nonu back to his old position in the midfield with Hosea Gear coming off the bench to play on the wing. McLean has, like Auckland coach Pat Lam, included two World Cup players, centre Conrad Smith and loose forward Rodney So'oialo, on the bench. Though the Wellington coach wasn't intending to alter his squad too much, injuries to Ellison and flanker Serge Lilo changed that and he has resorted to including Smith and So'oialo in the playing squad. Daniel Kirkpatrick is the only Wellington squad member from last week to miss the final this week, his place taken by Smith on the bench. After winning the national provincial championship in 2000, Wellington have failed at three finals - 2003, 2004 and last year when they were beaten 31-37 by Waikato. "We've just got to have the right attitude," Weepu told NZPA. "We've got to make sure the boys are in the right frame of mind. If everyone accepts his responsibility there's no reason why we should be disappointed later." In Cory Jane, Gear, Shannon Paku, Tu'ipulotu, Nonu, Weepu and fly-half Jimmy Gopperth, Wellington have a backline capable of cutting up any opponent in the competition. Wellington: 15 Cory Jane, 14 Hosea Gear, 13 Tane Tu'ipulotu, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Shannon Paku, 10 Jimmy Gopperth, 9 Piri Weepu (c), 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Tom Harding, 6 Api Naikatini, 5 Bernie Upton, 4 Jeremy Thrush, 3 John Schwalger, 2 Luke Mahoney, 1 Jacob Ellison Replacements: 16 Dane Coles, 17 Anthony Perenise, 18 Fafili Levave, 19 Rodney So'oialo, 20 Alex Tulou, 21 Alby Mathewson, 22 Conrad Smith Date: Saturday, 20 October Venue: Eden Park, Auckland Kick-off: 19:35 (08:35 BST, 07:35 GMT) Referee: Chris Pollock Touch judges: Keith Brown, Vinny Munro Television match official: Jonathon White Assessor: Glenn Wahlstrom, Keith Lawrence
