On Thursday, among four team announcements, New Zealand chose its 22 to play a France lineup criticized as being weak, allowing the All Blacks to presumably win easy Saturday at Eden Park and give the French an easier road through the playoffs.
Scotland decided to go without its captain, lock Alastair Kellock, for the second straight match, the Pool B encounter against Argentina. And Mike Tindall, the royal marriage guy, returns at inside center for England.
When Tindall runs onto the field at Dunedin's Otago Stadium for his side's match Saturday against Romania, Zara Phillips, the 30-year-old granddaughter of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, is expected to be in the crowd.
Phillips, who married Tindall in a private ceremony at Edinburgh, Scotland, on July 30, arrived in Auckland on Wednesday for a charity function. Ordinarily, that wouldn't have made much news in New Zealand or elsewhere, but Tindall's actions in a Queenstown bar nearly two weeks ago did.
Tindall was caught on a hotel's security camera talking to a woman. He briefly held her hand, and she kissed him on the top of his head. It will be the first face-to-face meeting of the couple, who have been apart three weeks, since the episode.
The 32-year-old Tindall was rested from last week's win over Georgia. Tindall faced the media for the first time Thursday, with manager Martin Johnson on his flank, which was just as well — he deflected any questions about the bar incident.
"We've played since then ... we've put it to bed," Johnson said, refusing to allow Tindall to reply to anything but match queries.
Romania also named its team Thursday for the Scotland match Sunday at Wellington, which the Scots will have to win to keep up their record of having made the quarterfinals in all six previous World Cups.
Defending champion South Africa will attempt to move to 3-0 in this tournament when it plays regional neighbor Namibia later Thursday at Auckland. And Australia and Ireland held captain's runs for their Friday match at Wellington, with the Wallabies hoping to overcome their surprise loss to Ireland and the Americans looking to cause an upset of their own.
The day began early for New Zealand team officials when they announced their team at 7:30 a.m. local time in a crowded downtown hotel meeting room.
Captain Richie McCaw and Dan Carter were back from injuries and fullback Israel Dagg and scrumhalf Piri Weepu preferred to start, the only four players different to the side which beat Japan 83-7 last Friday.
Asked if this was his No. 1 team, coach Graham Henry said, "For this particular opposition, I think it's the best team." France coach Marc Lievremont has had to defend accusations that his side is not.
If France was to lose to New Zealand, it could possibly finish in second place and likely in the draw's favorable side. Lievremont has picked scrumhalf Morgan Parra at flyhalf — he has never started there before — and for leaving his best forward, hooker William Servat, on the bench.
The New Zealand Herald newspaper said in a front-page blast that the selections were a "farce," and a columnist called it an "an insult to the 60,000 who have bought tickets expecting a contest between teams at full strength." Radio sport shows Thursday suggested that several players named in the supposedly weakened France team had posted the newspaper's front page in the dressing room, just for a bit of inspiration against the All Blacks.
New Zealand coach Graham Henry denied it was an inferior France team.
"This French side will be a very difficult side to beat," Henry said. "They're a big side, very physical, got a very mature pack and got some outstanding, talented backs. We've got a lot of history with them in the World Cup and there's been a lot of pain for some people, and we don't want to go through that pain again." The match will be the 50th between the teams, and their first at the World Cup since France shocked the All Blacks 20-18 in the 2007 quarterfinals. The French also knocked out New Zealand in 1999.
Kellock, confirmed as Scotland captain before the tournament, must be wondering what he did to get offside with coach Andy Robinson. But Robinson said Kellock's exclusion for the big Argentina match is purely positional and not personal.
Scrumhalf Rory Lawson will again lead Scotland. Lawson is unbeaten in four matches as Scotland's captain, leading the team to a 15-6 win over Georgia in its previous Pool B match.
Kellock, who captained Scotland to a 2-0 series win over Argentina last year, couldn't make the 22-player squad for the match against the Pumas, who beat Romania 43-8 in its last match.
"To be fair to Al, as always he has taken it very well, he's an outstanding character," Robinson said. "For us going into this game, we have to be able to play with ball in hand but we also have to be able to move Argentina around. It's important that we don't just get into a kicking game."
