The Tongans have been training at Northumbria University’s Bullocksteads Sports Ground, which stands next door to Kingston Park, Newcastle Falcons’ ground.
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Now coming to Savea – have I got this completely wrong? “I know the boys have enjoyed their stay in this area and it’s been great meeting up with our fans here in the north east. We look forward to repaying their hospitality at our public event at Mowden Park on Thursday morning”.
First though comes the excitement of facing up to the haka and the All Blacks for the first time.
Most interest will lie in whether the teams perform their hakas at the same time and advanced on each other as they did when they electrified Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium in a pool match clash at the 2003 World Cup in Australia.
Mealamu, who has more than 120 caps for New Zealand, said: “The stay has been really good and the people have been so nice”.
He said: “I will just go around that question if you don’t mind. I’m just blessed and proud of the way I’ve developed my game over the past 12 years – it’s something I didn’t think would happen”.
“We’re OK with it and the people who are anxious about it don’t need to be anxious”, he said, adding McCaw could have played but with the All Blacks already through to the quarter-finals there was no need to risk him.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has made six changes from the starting line-up that beat Georgia on Monday.
New Zealand: 1. Tony Woodcock, 2.
Whatever his quirks may be off the field, Nonu is likely to end his All Blacks career as their greatest ever second five-eighth. But this week we’ve been looking to freshen the group up and really concentrate on the key parts of our game that we expect will deliver a quality, 80-minute performance on Friday night.
“It’s important to take a step-up in what we’ve been doing”.
“You can’t afford to do that against a tier one nation”.
For once, we actually want you to film it in portrait.
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Tonga centre Siale Piutau, whose All Black brother Charles missed the cut for the World Cup, said the All Blacks have weak points but it will take a total effort to exploit them. He is a cousin of Doug Howlett, the flying wing who scored an All Black record 49 tries in 62 tests for New Zealand between 2000 and 2007. A hip injury picked up by captain Richie McCaw during the 43-10 win over Georgia, which will rule him out of the Tonga game, may be of concern, though.
