Confident Henry rings the changes

It almost appeared as though the All Blacks were taking the you-know-what. Graham Henry and his colleagues on the New Zealand selection panel reacted to last weekend's decisive victory over the British Isles by dropping three of their back division - the full-back Leon MacDonald, the wing Doug Howlett and the scrum-half Justin Marshall - for Saturday's second Test meeting in Wellington. Needless to say, Henry did not regard this as a panic measure.

Mils Muliaina, a counter-attacker armed with breathtaking pace and spirit of adventure, replaces MacDonald, while Rico Gear, the form wing in this year's Super 12, gets the nod over Howlett, who has been out of form.

The contest between New Zealand's two senior half-backs, Marshall and Byron Kelleher, is considered so close that Henry always planned to give them a game each and save the tough decision until the last Test in Auckland in 10 days' time.

There will be a fourth change if the huge Otago prop Carl Hayman fails to recover from a toe infection. Greg Somerville is on stand-by.

"New Zealand rugby has fallen over in the past because there was no depth of players in certain positions," said Henry. "Our task is to ensure it doesn't happen again. Frankly, we're looking to the future."

In a series against the Lions? If ever there was a sign of New Zealand confidence ahead of a big game, this was it.

NEW ZEALAND (v Lions, Second Test, Wellington, Saturday): M Muliaina; R Gear, T Umaga (capt), A Mauger, S Sivivatu; D Carter, B Kelleher; T Woodcock, K Mealamu, C Hayman, C Jack, A Williams, J Collins, R McCaw, R So'oialo. Replacements: D Witcombe, G Somerville, J Gibbes, S Lauaki, J Marshall, M Nonu, L MacDonald.

Chris Hewett