PARIS (Reuters) – New Zealand’s Beauden Barrett and Codie Taylor have returned to the side to face France in Paris on Saturday, having recovered after concussion forced them off against England two weeks ago.
The pair have successfully completed head injury assessment protocols and were included in the team named on Thursday, but a knock suffered by former captain Sam Cane means he is out of the team after the All Blacks edged Ireland last Friday.
In all there are five changes to the starting lineup from the test in Dublin which they won 23-13.
Barrett takes over from Damian McKenzie at flyhalf while Taylor replaces Asafgo Aumua at hooker.
Taylor was withdrawn in the opening six minutes at Twickenham on Nov. 2 for a head injury assessment, while Barrett was taken off 16 minutes from time after also suffering a knock to the head.
Cane’s concussion means a shift in the loose forward trio for the Stade de France clash with Wallace Sititi moving back to number eight, Ardie Savea going onto the open side of the scrum where Cane played last week and Samipeni Finau coming in on the blindside.
A hand injury means Mark Tele’a vacates his place on the right wing with Sevu Reece taking over.
The other change to the starting lineup is at scrumhalf with a strong performance off the bench against Ireland seeing Cam Roigard chosen ahead of Cortez Ratima, who drops to the bench.
New Zealand have won their opening two tests in the November international schedule with a narrow 24-22 victory over England followed by the win over Ireland last week.
After Saturday’s clash in Paris, they will play Italy in Turin on Nov. 23.
Team:
15-Will Jordan, 14-Sevu Reece, 13-Rieko Ioane, 12-Jordie Barrett, 11-Caleb Clarke, 10-Beauden Barrett, 9-Cam Roigard, 8-Wallace Sititi, 7-Ardie Savea, 6-Samipeni Finau, 5-Tupou Vaa’i, 4-Scott Barrett (capt.), 3-Tyrel Lomax, 2-Cody Taylor, 1-Tamaiti Williams
Replacements: 16-Asafo Aumua, 17-Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 18-Pasilio Tosi, 19-Patrick Tuipulotu, 20-Peter Lakai, 21-Cortez Ratima, 22-Anton Lienert-Brown, 23-Damian McKenzie
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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