N Zealand v Australia: Teams

The Tri-Nations title might already have been won, but there is still a great expectation on New Zealand and Australia to perform on Saturday.

Turned over by world champions South Africa at home last time out, the All Blacks relinquished their four-year hold on the Tri-Nations championship.

They still sit second by virtue of their wins over Australia in Auckland and Sydney, which secured the Bledisloe Cup in the process, but still face the possibility of finishing bottom of the table.

The Wallabies lifted some pressure from themselves when they beat South Africa 21-6 in Brisbane two weeks ago, meanwhile, to snap a six-match losing streak in Tri-Nations tests and coach Robbie Deans has named an unchanged line up accordingly.

Weakness

By contrast, the All Blacks have made five changes to their squad after a third consecutive loss to the Springboks.

Most aspects of New Zealand's play were below par in that narrow defeat in Hamilton but the most debated area of deficiency has been the line-out, a continuing problem for the All Blacks this season.

Despite assurances from forwards coach Steve Hansen - a former winger - that the line-out is "a work in progress", the All Blacks performance has deteriorated match by match.

New Zealand won only one of the first 15 line-outs in Saturday's match as their play suffered from glaring errors of timing and communication.

Mentality

Rather than seriously addressing the issue this week, however, Hansen has sneeringly condemned New Zealand's critics.

"They haven't built any statues yet for critics and wannabes," he said, paraphrasing legendary American football coach Vince Lombardi.

"So my job is not about listening to those people, my job is about making sure we stay on task and do the job well, so there is no point in me getting concerned."

The All Blacks' only practical step to revitalize the line-out has been to drop young lock Isaac Ross - responsible for calling line-out throws throughout the season - and to replace him with uncapped Otago lock Tom Donnelly.

Hansen added: "We have got enough people, enough expertise in our group to fix the line-outs. We just have to make sure we do what we want to do correctly and stay focused on that job and when we do that, our line-out is fine as it was in the second half."

Both teams will want to end their disappointing campaigns on a high, particularly with a fourth Bledisloe Cup match set to be played in Tokyo in October.

New Zealand: 15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Isaia Toeava, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Joe Rokocoko, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan; 1 Tony Woodcock, 2 Andrew Hore, 3 Neemia Tialata, 4 Brad Thorn, 5 Tom Donnelly, 6 Adam Thomson, 7 Richie McCaw (capt), 8 Kieran Read
Replacements:16 Aled de Malmanche, 17 John Afoa, 18 Jason Eaton, 19 Rodney So'oialo, 20 Brendon Leonard, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Hosea Gear

Australia: 15 James O'Connor, 14 Lachie Turner, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Berrick Barnes, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Will Genia, 8 George Smith (c), 7 David Pocock, 6 Rocky Elsom, 5 Mark Chisholm, 4 James Horwill, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Stephen Moore, 17 Pek Cowan, 18 Dean Mumm, 19 Wycliff Palu, 20 Luke Burgess, 21 Quade Cooper, 22 Peter Hynes.