{"id":14568,"date":"2012-09-13T04:16:11","date_gmt":"2012-09-13T02:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/09\/rugby-weepu-gets-first-all-blacks-start-as-hansen-rings-changes\/"},"modified":"2012-09-13T04:16:11","modified_gmt":"2012-09-13T02:16:11","slug":"rugby-weepu-gets-first-all-blacks-start-as-hansen-rings-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-weepu-gets-first-all-blacks-start-as-hansen-rings-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Weepu gets first All Blacks start as Hansen rings changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

Sept 13<\/span> (Reuters) – World Cup-winning scrumhalf Piri Weepu
\nwill make his first start for New Zealand this season after
\ncoach Steve Hansen made several changes to his team to face
\nSouth Africa in the Rugby Championship on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Weepu, who many consider lucky to make the All Blacks squad
\nat all after he returned to Super Rugby overweight and unfit,
\nhas been used solely as a replacement this season behind rookie
\nAaron Smith but will start in Dunedin.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith has been preferred by Hansen due to his speed of pass
\nthat has given the All Blacks more space and time, but he
\nstruggled against a physical Argentina side last week in
\nWellington.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Weepu came on as a second-half replacement and his
\nexperience settled the All Blacks as they adopted a more
\nconservative approach in the atrocious conditions, going on to
\ngrind out a 21-5 victory.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The scrumhalf was the only change to the backline but Hansen
\nmade three alterations to his pack, with Sam Whitelock replacing
\nBrodie Retallick at lock, Liam Messam coming on to the blindside
\nof the scrum for Victor Vito while hooker Andrew Hore replaces
\nKeven Mealamu.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Retallick, Vito and Mealamu all drop to the bench for the
\nmatch at Otago Stadium.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Hansen’s only other change on the bench was to bring utility
\nback Tamati Ellison in for Ben Smith, who had covered the
\noutside backs for the three earlier matches in the expanded
\nsouthern hemisphere tournament.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“At the halfway stage of the… Rugby Championship we are
\nvery happy, from a results point of view,” Hansen said in a
\nstatement of New Zealand’s perfect record to date.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“There is a second challenge we have set ourselves, to
\nconstantly improve our game and in that regard we are not the
\nfinished product. However, the coaching staff and team leaders
\nare reasonably happy with the progress we are making.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

New Zealand: 15-Israel Dagg, 14-Cory Jane, 13-Conrad Smith,
\n12-Ma’a Nonu, 11-Julian Savea, 10-Aaron Cruden, 9-Piri Weepu,
\n8-Kieran Read, 7-Richie McCaw (captain), 6-Liam Messam, 5-Sam
\nWhitelock, 4-Luke Romano, 3-Owen Franks, 2-Andrew Hore, 1-Tony
\nWoodcock<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Replacements: 16-Keven Mealamu, 17-Charlie Faumuina,
\n18-Brodie Retallick, 19-Victor Vito, 20-Aaron Smith, 21-Beauden
\nBarrett, 22-Tamati Ellison<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Greg Stutchbury in Wellington; Editing by John
\nO’Brien)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sept 13 (Reuters) – World Cup-winning scrumhalf Piri Weepu will make his first start for New Zealand this season after coach Steve Hansen made several changes to his team to face South Africa in the Rugby Championship on Saturday. Weepu, who many consider lucky to make the All Blacks squad at all after he returned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-14568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}