Tom Rees to face mighty All Blacks

11:36am Friday 13th June 2008

TOM Rees will face the All Blacks for the first time after being picked in the England rugby side that will play New Zealand in Auckland on Saturday.

The former Basingstoke RFC colt will line up at openside flanker for the match, winning his 10th cap and making his first international appearance since injuring his knee while playing for England against Wales in the Six Nations back in February.

Rees will be joined in the back row by Wasps team-mate James Haskell and Gloucester's Luke Narraway.

Another Wasps star, Joe Worsley, will be on the bench as the back-row replacement, so blindside flanker Tom Croft, who grew up in Kingsclere, misses out.

Scrum-half Peter Richards, a former Lord Wandsworth College student, will join Croft in the stands after he too was left out of the 22-man squad.

Jonny Wilkinson, who also attended the Long Sutton school, did not travel to New Zealand due to an injured shoulder.

The England side that will start the match on Saturday (kick-off 8.35am BST) shows 11 changes to the one that beat Ireland in the last game of the Six Nations.

Prop Andrew Sheridan is the only player in the side who started the world cup final last October.

Rob Andrew, who is leading the touring party in the absence of manager Martin Johnson, says the changes are down to injury and retirement but insists that the players in the team are all on top of their game.

"There have been a few changes since the Six Nations, particularly in the back line, but this team has been picked on form over the last two or three months since the end of the Six Nations," he explained.

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