I'm a little disappointed that the Wallabies have stuck with Elsom (though he was never going to get dropped as captain - he also wasn't 100% bad last week)
and McCabe (would've rather had Fainga'a)
Still, a strong team - Strong enough to turn over the All Blacks? Maybe if it were in Australia, can't see them getting the win away from though
Would love to be proven wrong however
I actually quite like McCabe at 12 - like Fainga'a he is a rock-solid defender, and is good at taking the ball into contact. Where I think McCabe shades Fainga'a is that he runs superb lines - he's exactly the sort of player that you would want running off Quade Coopers shoulder. While I probably think that Fainga'a is perhaps the better of the two at this stage - largely due to his combination with Cooper and his greater experience at 12 - I think potentially McCabe could bring greater value to the Aussie 12 jersey.
Really looking forward to the game. I think the AB's should have the edge up front, and will look to dominate at scrum time (especially with Owen Franks and Brad Thorn back). Ali Williams really needs to step up his game, as I really rate the duo of Horwill and Simmons. The loose-forward battle will be interesting, and I feel NZ have quite a big edge here. McCaw looked to be getting back near his best last week; though I think Pocock is now clearly better than McCaw at the breakdown, I think McCaw has a more complete game, and certainly gets a lot more support from his fellow loosies.
The battle of the halves could well decide the game - it will certainly be interesting to see Weepu get 60-odd mins. I expect both Weepu and Carter may kick in behind the Australian defense quite a bit, as though Quade Cooper can be great on the counter-attack, his positioning can be a bit off at times. They will have to be very accurate with their kicks though as Cooper, Ioane, O'Connor, and Beale could cause havoc if they kick straight down their throats. The AB's look to have a edge in the midfield. Nonu has been pretty quiet these past few weeks; it wouldn't surprise me if this week he really steps it up and causes a lot of trouble. He, along with Carter, will certainly test Ioanes defense positioning.
The battle between the wings will certainly be interesting - I expect Australia may try to kick in behind both Gear and Sivivatu, so both will have to be on their toes. Hosea Gear v O'Connor in particular interesting - as long as Gear stays with O'Connor he should be able to contain him, but if he gives him any room O'Connor will be gone. While O'Connor is a solid defender (especially for his size) he is giving up close to 20kg to Gear - though I expect O'Connor will eventually stop him, Gear may have made 5-10 metres, and I'm sure he will look to offload too. I expect Ioane will cause Sivivatu a lot of problems on the other side, though Sivivatu himself certainly looked dangerous v Fiji, and is likely to be facing either Beale of even Quade Cooper from set play so may cause some damage.
Overall I'm expect the AB's to win a relatively close match by about 12 points.
