Elijah Taylor makes his debut in weekend encounter against Wales - Rugby
The second-row forward, Elijah Taylor, will make his debut against Wales in the inaugural encounter of the Gillette Four Nations on Saturday, November 5, at Wembley. This is one match of the double-header of the Four Nations campaign, the second game of the same day will see England take on Australia.
New Zealand made a few changes in the team configuration after they lost 12-26 against campaign favourite, Australia, who managed to beat the Kiwis defence. Their overall performance in Friday’s clash was disappointing as the teams march deeper into the Series.
The first-half of the clash was specifically not up to the mark as the Black caps failed completely to make any contributions to the scorecard.
Meanwhile, Wales does not have a very rosy outlook, as they were weighed down completely by the English side, on Saturday, October 29. The first-half of the clash had established an early lead for England, who had stretched it to 14 points, which remained unanswered down the length of the initial half of the game.
The Welsh side is already considered the underdogs amongst the teams in contention for the Four Nations title and their performance so far is not helping them undo the image.
Clearly, New Zealand is considered stronger than Wales and are going for changes in the squad after their embarrassing defeat against the Aussies in hopes of hanging on to their Four Nations title.
The three changes that were made to the Kiwis’ side by their coach, Stephen Kearney, includes the return of Adam Blair from his suspension, call-up of Nathan Fien and the on-field promotion to the front line-up of Thomas Leuluai. Simon Mannering along with Issac Luke will sit out the Saturday’s clash after his cannonball tackle on Australian prop David Shillington that led to the issuance of caution statement released by the International match review panel.
While commenting on the recent changes made by him, Kiwis coach stated, “As we do every Test we play, we have selected the side that we think best suits our needs for this match against Wales. After being out for so long, it's great to have Adam back. He has been working hard to get himself ready for this. It's a chance to give Simon a break as well. He has had a huge year, not only playing every game so far but also playing 80 minutes almost every time as well.”
It is expected that New Zealand will be able to out-perform in Saturday’s encounter against the meagre Welsh side with the updated squad.
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