One of the forgotten men of New Zealand rugby, Marty Holah will lead the Juniors against Samoa at Apia this Sunday.  The match is on Sky Sport at 2:00pm.

He is joined by fellow All Blacks Dermody, Witcombe, Afoa, Rawlinson and Tuiali'i in a powerful looking forward pack, with Southland's Hoani MacDonald and Canterbury's Kieran Reid the only uncapped players in the eight.  That I expect will change before the 2008 season is out, but I digress.

The backline has more of a 'junior' look about it, but is still pretty experienced, with Gear, Laulala, Hamilton and Cowan fully capped All Blacks, and Stephen Donald a returning Junior from last season.  Jane and Brett and the new boys on the block, and in the case of Brett, expect to see him wearing a test jersey before too many years too.

Most interesting though, more than the starting team, as I expect this will change and most players will be given starts and time on the field, is the reserve bench, and in particular, the reserve hooker.  Tone Kopelani is nailing his colours to the New Zealand flagpole by playing for the Juniors, at a time when you would think he would be looking at heading offshore and perhaps playing for Tonga (or is it Samoa).  No doubt he can still head offshore, and playing for the Juniors will look good on his CV, but it is cutting off any chance of playing test football.

Players worth watching, as the Cartel will be doing, are the fringe All Blacks, the blokes who lost out by coin tosses, the next guys on the plane to France should any of the current crop fall over in the next seven test matches.

Rico Gear will be wanting a busy game - Dougy Howlett makes sides because his work rate makes Richie McCaw look like a lazy bastard, so Gear needs to do more on and off the ball.

Jimmy Cowan, Cartel happy with his game but for his running game - he needs to look for more in attack - Leonard was selected in the All Blacks because he 'has a go' (my words, not the Cartels), so expect some more snipes from Cowan as he adapts his game to the selectors wants.

Tuiali'i would be first man in line should So'oialo go down in a heap, but has the spectre of Sione Lauaki waiting in the wings should he play like a plonker.  Last year for the Juniors Nick Williams was the starting number eight, and at the end of the series, he was looking like he should be an All Black.  So big form boots to fill for the land crab.

Marty Holah, obviously still very much in the All Black frame should McCaw be invalided.  Did not have a Holah vintage Super 14, but as the old saying goes, form is temporary, class is forever, and Holah is class.

Rawlinson had a huge Super 14, and is just unlucky that there are, despite injuries to Eaton and Ryan, still four quality locks ahead of him in the pecking order - in the opinion of the Cartel, which is the only one that matters!  He would not disgrace an All Black jersey at the moment, in the form of his life.

Up front, you have Afoa and Dermody, both All Blacks last season, but neither really threatening for a spot this season.  Afoa's scrummaging prowess seems to have plateau'd at 'as good as an Al Baxter' levels, while Dermody opened the door on his own coffin by signing to head offshore post RWC, so why waste time on him when there is a John Schwalger waiting in the wings.

Even Derren Witcombe is playing well again, back to his pre neck injury form.  Mose so once he lost his angry pills and stopped trying to be hard, and just started to be hard by playing good hard rugby, not the niggly shit, that comes about as natural to him as Aussies appointing a Kiwi to coach their cricket teams...

A match worth watching then, so set your alarm clocks for Sunday Afternoon - the future of New Zealand rugby will be on display!

Junior All Blacks team to play Samoa: 15. Cory Jane, 14. Rico Gear, 13. Casey Laulala, 12. Stephen Brett, 11. Scott Hamilton, 10. Stephen Donald, 9. Jimmy Cowan, 8. Mose Tuiali’i, 7. Marty Holah (captain), 6. Kieran Read, 5. Greg Rawlinson, 4. Hoani MacDonald, 3. John Afoa, 2. Derren Witcombe, 1. Clarke Dermody
Reserves: 16. Tone Kopelani, 17. Campbell Johnstone, 18. Ross Filipo, 19. Jerome Kaino, 20. Andrew Ellis, 21. Anthony Tuitavake, 22. Daniel Braid / Tane Tu’ipulotu.