The All Blacks hooker Keven Mealamu today had some success in his appeal against a four-week ban for head-butting, but will still miss the match with Scotland tomorrow as part of what is now a two-week suspension. The ban, imposed for an attack on the England's Lewis Moody, means the Blacks will have to make a fifth change to their Murrayfield line-up.
After assurances from the New Zealand assistant coach Steve Hansen that the 31-year-old hooker "hasn't got a dirty bone in his body", the three-man appeal panel looked at the video clip of last Saturday's incident, which appears to show Mealamu's head making contact with the back of Moody's as he lay on the Twickenham turf, and reduced the punishment.
The original citing was made for striking an opponent with the head, which is covered by Law 10.4 (a). Although the International Rugby Board appeal committee said it "upheld the original decision that there had been an act of foul play", it "concluded that the act was not intentional", hence the reduction.
Mealamu said: "For me there's a lot of relief. It's been a tough week having something like this hang over my head. I've never, ever played the game to ever hurt anyone. To finally get this come through to say the way I did things was pretty reckless is a lot better than saying I intentionally tried to head-butt someone. I feel a lot better and I'll take a lot more care the next time I do a clean-out like that again."
Back home the appeal has not received 100% approval, some even suggesting that motives other than justice may have been in play. Hika Elliot, the hooker nominated to understudy Mealamu, is not a household name and made his only appearance for New Zealand in Munster on their previous trip to the northern hemisphere. The reserve hooker Andrew Hore has not played since the last match on that tour in Marseille following a shoulder operation in May.
Elliot's appearance at Limerick was limited to an 18-minute run-out as New Zealand were forced to dig deep in a midweek match where they did not want to risk too many Test starters. However, he was selected for the touring party on the back of strong performances in the ITM Cup for Hawke's Bay and was on the bench for the games against Australia in Hong Kong, and England.
However, Graham Henry wanted his All Blacks close to full strength to face an improving Scotland side who have won three Tests on the bounce – in Ireland and Argentina – and are seen as a potential force once again. In the recent past Henry has taken liberties with his Murrayfield selections, but this time he has limited his changes.
Key men such as Dan Carter and Richie McCaw start, and a gameplan has been worked out that is based on considerable homework by the assistant coach, Wayne Smith. "I spent a fair bit of time between the Tri-Nations and now looking at their last seven games," Smith said this week. "We looked at the differences in their game, we've done a bit of homework.
"In 2008 they tried an open expansive game against us, with [Ben] Cairns and [Nick] de Luca in midfield they spread everything. They were quite a handful," said Smith, who added that he is expecting much the same tomorrow. "Teams are clearly targeting the law changes, they've understood the advantages a team with ball in hand gets. Every team is going to develop that sort of game."
What he did not say was that while the Scots have had only the opening months of this season to bed in the changes, the All Blacks are at the end of a season in which their approach has been customised. The Scots, despite a lot of hard work in camp at St Andrews last week, are bound to be rusty after a five-month Test lay-off, while the All Blacks have played back-to-back games against Australia and England.
Andy Robinson's side will have to counter a vast difference in experience. While McCaw and the full-back Mils Muliaina will equal Sean Fitzpatrick's All Blacks record of 92 Tests, Robinson gives starting debuts to two forwards, the 6ft 9in 21-year-old second-row Richie Gray and the No8 Richie Vernon. Two more would-be debutants are on the replacements' bench in the Glasgow fly-half Ruaridh Jackson and Greig Laidlaw, the nephew of the former Scotland and British & Irish Lions scrum-half Roy Laidlaw, who was called up when Rory Lawson's damaged hand failed to heal.
Even without the All Blacks still smarting at what they see as an injustice, all four seem destined for rapid rise in their learning curve.
