First of all it was the white collar and now Steinlager have brought back the white can so much part of NZ culture in the 1980's & 90's. Have a look at the TV ad. What's next - Stand by Me & C'mon Kiwi C'mon C'mon being played at the grounds - let's hope so.
What's the old adage about not changing a winning team? Dare I mention Graham Henry & the word rotation in the same sentence but there are 7 changes to the All Black starting XV for this week's second test in the Tron.
To be fair some of these were enforced by injury with Mils replacing Dagg, Kahui replacing Conrad Smith & Tom Donnelly returning to replace Boric. Amongst the unenforced changes both the Franks brothers have been replaced by Woodcock (reward for his showing last week?) & Tialata. The other two changes are the merry-go-round at blindside with Kaino returning & Zac Guildford replacing the Rocket Man on the left wing.
Hard to know after the All Blacks 42-9 clattering of Wales at the Brook in the weekend but Welsh great Barry John was in no doubt praising Dan Carter as "the greatest flyhalf of the modern era" & bemoaning the Wales 2nd half performance.
Why is it that Dan Carter seems to reserve his best performances for the Northern hemisphere sides, particularly the Home Nations, as highlighted by his 2nd test master class versus the Lions in 2005? Give Carter front foot ball & any room to manoeuvre on phase ball & he can cut you to ribbons. The acceleration seems to remain intact after the Achilles injury & once through a gap he is devastating.
Other noticeable points from the test were;
As New Zealanders we need no reminding how keen Wayne Barnes is to pull a card from his pocket & send someone from the field. Though to be fair to him Jamie Heaslip & Ronan O'Gara left him with little choice.
Unfortunately, as much as we all like to see the All Blacks romp to victory, the Irish indiscipline meant this test was over as a meaningful contest after 15 minutes & eventually turned into a scrappy affair that won't mean much in the great history of NZ rugby.
So what can we take from it .....
Victor Vito replacing Jerome Kaino is the only change to the run-on XV for this weekend's match vs Wales as Graham Henry seems intent on using the Steinlager series to test a few rookies. Not a bad policy either as the Northern Hemisphere teams were pretty disappointing across the board last weekend (except Scotland of all people).
What is harder to understand is how Richard Kahui can replace Zac Guildford on the bench in one of three changes there (the others being the return of Woodcock for Tialata & Big Red for Kaino).
Great to see Israel Dagg named to make his All Black debut this Saturday. The starting XV also includes two other new test caps - Ben Franks & Benson Stanley, with another 3 (Whitelock, Weepu & Cruden) named on the bench.
Meanwhile the Irish have named a reasonably strong side given some of the injured players left at home. Every NZ fan will be pleased to see Ronan O'Gara starting & there also may be some weakness around that tight five. Plenty of class in the backs & watch out for Rob Kearney, one of the stars of the Lions tour of South Africa last year.
