This weekends team to play Portugal has the entire front row contingent of the RWC squad named in the match day 22.  The Mike Cron master plan starting to come to fruition?  Four props and three hookers!  It is a double reflection, one, on the Portugese, and how rubbish they really are, and two, how bloody good are front rowers - able to do anything!!

Carl Hayman is on the bench and will be covering lock, Kevin Mealamu is on the bench and covering flanker.  Neither that outlandish a call, as Hayman is a tall bugger for a prop, taller in fact than some former All Black captains* who locked the All Blacks scrum, and Mealamu was racing about the field from the flank for New Zealand in age grade teams.  Hayman also played lock and number eight at High School First XV level for Kings.

Yes, Hayman at number eight - he probably has the right power to height to weight ratio to be an ideal eight.  And yes Mr Jones, Mealamu has been playing in black for New Zealand for a long time, as he should, having been born here, but no digression, lets stick, or pretend to, facts...

However, the poor buggers that will have to lift Hayman, if he is used as a lineout jumper, sheesh, hope they have had their weet-bix this week, and one for luck!  More likely though that if the big man has to move to lock, one of the loose forwards will be used more often to leap.  Collins is used quite often at Super level at 2 for the Hurricanes, as is So'oilao, who is starting on the bench in this match.

Anyways, seven front rowers.  Potentially the match could finish with an All Black pack as follows.  1 Woodcock, 2 Oliver, 3 Somerville, 4 Hayman, 5 Tialata, 6 Hore, 7 Mealamau, 8 So'oilao.  I am sure Cron will be leaving subliminal messages in the Cartel's bedtime music all this week suggesting such!

Jack and Williams are backing up for their second matches in the starting XV, and fingers bloody crossed that neither get injured in the live training run.  Although they should be rested, or at least one of them for the Scotland match, as Thorne and Robinson are both off the injured list for that game.  I don't know about that pair starting a test match though, perhaps against Romania or Portugal, but not Scotland - while they are not flash, they do deserve some respect! 

Collins leads the side from the flank, Lauaki gets his chance to shine from number eight, and the worlds luckiest All Black, Masoe packs down in Richie McCaw's jersey.  Oh, and the front rowers starting in the front row jerseys this week are the returning Somerville at tighthead, Andrew Hore at hooker for his 22nd test match, and Neemia Tialata at loosehead, where I think he plays a better game as opposed to his favoured tight side.

So altogether, the starting pack is a pretty powerful mob.  Certainly not the number one pack, but at least all playing in position, and they should be too much for the Portuguesers. 

The backline selections give the rest of the squad a chance to play at the RWC too.  Smith gets another chance to play centre, which has probably disrupted the Cartel's plan to an extent, as to play Toeava, they have had to move the youngster to the wing.  Muliana gets his fifteen jersey back, Rokocoko gets a chance to add to his test try tally on the other wing, and in the five eights you have Evans and Mauger.  Brendon Leonard starts at halfback.

The main thing to watch from the backs, apart from the competition to score the most tries, will be to see who performs best, as places on the bench for the 'real' test team are up for grabs here.  Evans, Mauger (aiming for a starting spot), Toeave, Smith (ditto aiming for a start), Rokocoko (ditto, ditto) all have heaps to play for.  Even though this game will really prove nothing, tidy error free performances will not hinder selections, while errors while playing the amateur Portuguese will not put any ticks beside any names at all.  Right options at the right times will be worth more than being a greedy hungus and scoring five tries from centre, while bombing another half dozen because you kept going alone!

Score prediction time.  Based on nothing but their (the geezers) performance against the Scots, I would say an All Black win. Duh.  All Blacks scoring between 90-110 points, and perhaps conceding a try, but probably not.

However, we can at least be thankful that the Cron plan for the RWC was not followed through by the Cartel.  They saw through the Cron suggestion of selecting 28 front rowers alongside McCaw and Carter.  Cron's team, which was recently leaked to me,

*Todd Blackadder, 1.90m tall, C Hayman, 1.93m.