Luke Jacobson will captain the All Blacks for the first time in Durban on Tuesday, leading a side Dave Rennie has changed almost wholesale for the second match of the Rugby's Greatest Rivalry tour.
Rennie made 15 changes to the run-on XV that beat the Stormers 38-21 in Cape Town on Friday, handing the Chiefs loose forward the armband and the No. 7 jersey.
"Luke is the obvious choice to captain the team against the Sharks," Rennie said. "He is highly respected, has a great feel for the game and will lead through his actions."
Jacobson, 29, packs down in a back row with Wallace Sititi at No. 8 and Tupou Vaa'i on the blindside. Sititi missed the tour opener with what the team described as a mild illness after originally being named.
Two players are set to debut off the bench. Hooker Bradley Slater, who joined the squad only five days ago as cover for the injured George Bell, is named at 16, alongside Moana Pasifika loose forward Semisi Tupou Ta'eiloa.
"Two more players will pull on the All Blacks jersey for the first time against the Sharks," Rennie said. "On behalf of the whole squad, I want to congratulate Semisi and Bradley on achieving this very special milestone, and I know their family and friends will be incredibly proud."
Seven of the matchday 23 backed up from Cape Town. Asafo Aumua, Sam Darry, Kyle Preston and Caleb Clarke all came off the bench against the Stormers and start here; Pasilio Tosi, who started, drops to the bench with Ollie Norris and Ethan Blackadder.
Ruben Love wears No. 10 for the first time on tour with Preston, who has one Test cap, making his first All Blacks start at halfback. Jordie Barrett and Quinn Tupaea continue in midfield — Tupaea's selection forced by Billy Proctor's tour-ending shoulder fracture — and Damian McKenzie starts at fullback behind a back three completed by Clarke and Fehi Fineanganofo.
The turnaround has been the theme of the week.
"The opening match gave the players a real introduction to the way that South African teams play and the Sharks will be no different," Rennie said. "With a short turnaround between games, today has been a big day of preparation. There is a lot of excitement in the group, with the majority of the squad about to play their first game of the tour."
Rennie had flagged exactly this after Friday's win, when Josh Jacomb and Siale Lauakai became the first two players of the tour to pull on the jersey.
"What a great moment for those guys," he said. "You play your first game for the All Blacks; they got to wear the jersey, sing the national anthem, do the haka, and then play in a fantastic stadium."
Not everything in Cape Town pleased him. The All Blacks conceded three yellow cards to English referee Karl Dickson — Anton Lienert-Brown for a high tackle, Simon Parker at a Stormers lineout drive, Josh Moorby for cynically stopping a try — and were down to 13 men at one point in the first half. They lost 15 turnovers and missed 20 tackles.
Stand-in captain Patrick Tuipulotu, who led the side that night and is rested for Durban, gave the hosts full credit.
"Yeah, I think we come into this game knowing full well that the Stormers would be very physical and throw everything at us and be set piece dominant, and that's what they did," Tuipulotu told Sky Sport. "But I think credit to the Stormers, they managed to obviously test our discipline, get a lot of penalties, end up in our half, and make us defend quite a bit."
He was blunter about his own side: "They put a lot of pressure on us. We made a lot of mistakes tonight, and a lot of the messaging was around trying to keep our discipline, as well as try to play, keep the ball in hand."
The subplot in Durban belongs to the opposition bench. Ma'a Nonu, 44, is named at 23 for the Sharks against the team he won 103 caps and two World Cups with, weeks after signing in a high-performance mentorship role. Tuipulotu admitted the selection caught him off guard.
"I didn't expect him to be named, but am certainly looking forward to it," he said. "A lot of the boys know him and are close to him. It's no secret how long he's played; his career's been this long because he's a true professional of the game, and he's been blessed to keep playing.
"I think it'll be quite a spectacle to see him come up against us. Might catch up with him midweek and give him a jab or two."
Not everyone is convinced the All Blacks have their best 10 available. Former New Zealand halfback Justin Marshall, who has criticised NZ Rugby's eligibility timing for keeping Richie Mo'unga off the tour, said Love "has been going brilliantly" but argued the squad would still be better for having Mo'unga in camp as competition, even if he never played.
Kick-off at Kings Park is 19:00 local on Tuesday, 5am Wednesday in New Zealand. Matthew Carley referees.
