Giteau expecting attention in Auckland - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Giteau expecting attention in Auckland

By Adrian Warren 29/07/2008 07:55:14 PM Comments (0)

Wallabies five-eighth Matt Giteau is anticipating a busy night of defending in Auckland on Saturday as he expects New Zealand to direct more of their attacking traffic at him in their second Tri-Nations rugby clash of the season.

Giteau and fellow playmaker and inside centre Berrick Barnes both had their share of defensive duties last weekend when Australia trumped the All Blacks 34-19 in Sydney.

New Zealand got little change out of the two lightly framed Australian backs, with Barnes in particular excelling defensively and winning the man-of-the-match.

Barnes at 87kg and Giteau at 85kg both concede plenty of weight to New Zealand's hard-running inside centre Ma's Nonu, who is listed at 104kg.

"You do expect to get a lot of traffic coming at us, if you combine us together, we're maybe only about the weight of Ma'a Nonu, so we're always going to get targeted," Giteau said.

"We do expect that, but having said that I thought Berrick defended really well on the weekend and he is a good defender in general.

"So they will probably target me more than they will Berrick."

While both Barnes and Giteau are renowned for their creative abilities, the latter believed defence was more important individually than attack.

"Your ability to score points I think relies on the rest of the team doing their job. Defensively being able to stop points being put on you is an individual thing," Giteau said.

"They did score one try (last weekend) when (New Zealand five-eighth) Dan Carter bumped me, so that was something I was pretty disappointed about from a personal point of view."

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