Sean Farrell reports from Chicago
NEW ZEALAND HEAD coach Steve Hansen is confident that the experience of Jerome Kaino will keep his side’s engine room ticking over when they face Ireland on Saturday in Soldier Field (kick-off 20.00 Irish time).
Injuries to first-choice partnership Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock, coupled with a family bereavement for Luke Romano, has left the world champions with just three recognised second rows in their squad for their first November Test.
Of those three, only Patrick Tuipulotu (10 caps) has international experience, so Hansen has opted to send blindside Jerome Kaino in to shore up the tight five alongside his fellow Auckland Blue.
“We’ve got a young guy who has not played a Test match, he’s only been in and around the team for four days, so we just felt it was better for him coming off the bench,” Hansen says with a nod to Scott Barrett. Vaea Fifita missed out on the 23 altogether.
Variation
“Jerome Kaino covered lock for us at the World Cup and he covered lock for us during this season, so we’re relatively comfortable that he’ll be okay.
“He’s a good scrummager and we’ve got quite a bit of variation in our line-out.”
Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt also expressed admiration for Kaino, having known the man well from his days in Auckland.
“I’m sure that Jerome put his hand up there, I’m sure he loves playing at lock,” Schmidt said with a smile.
“I coached him at schoolboys and obviously at the Blues for quite some time. He’s an incredibly impressive player. He has really matured and got better as he’s gone on.
“His line-out capability is probably something that allows him to play at lock, so he’s very powerful man.
“It’s probably not his favourite position, but I think it’s an indication of the trust that the All Black management have in him to be able to do a really good job there.
“And again I think sometimes it’s a needs-must. And Jerome has developed into a really good leader, and he probably genuinely did put his hand up and say: ‘look I’ll do it for the team and I’ll do a good job of it’.”
Hansen hinted at slightly more concern over how events would unfold out wide and in the air than the tight five, citing Ireland’s ability to pressure teams with contestable balls and kick-chase as an area his defence will need to be wary of.
“We’re expecting a physical encounter, one where they’ll kick the ball a fair bit. Sexton and Murray are both key guys at driving them around the park and have real variation in their kicking game.
“Their chase of their kicks is good, they’ll compete in the air. They score a lot of points off their line-out, so they’ll see that as a part of their game they’ll want to get right, whether it be from driving mauls or scoring plays off it.
Both (Waisake Naholo and Julian Savea) are good finishers. Israel (Dagg) is probably a bit better in the air than both of them, but both of them are okay. I think they’ll get tested in that area, so we’ll see how they’re going.”
“(Ireland) like to play little set-plays that they’ll have worked out; ‘we think they’re vulnerable here’. So they’ll jack up a set-play to exploit that. We’ve got to make sure we plug those holes.”
