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James O'Connor
Wing novice James O'Connor is being viewed as Australia's Achilles heel but he'll have an All Blacks record-breaker on edge on Saturday night.
After overcoming Springbok superstar Bryan Habana in his wing baptism last week, the challenge doesn't get any easier for the 20-year-old when he marks Joe Rokocoko.
New Zealand's 'Rocket Man', who is set to eclipse former greats Jonah Lomu and John Kirwan as the All Blacks most-capped winger, enjoys a significant size and experience advantage over O'Connor.
But the 64-Test flyer fears he'll be shown up by the Wallabies wonderboy, who he likened to jockey-sized Welsh wizard Shane Williams.
"They're so elusive smaller wingers," Rokocoko said. "I'd rather mark someone who is solid and big, than someone who is small and nippy.
"They can step off both feet and run really sharply, so he'll be a handful."
O'Connor, 10cm shorter and 14kg lighter than Rokocoko, is happy to hear it but has his own concerns in what looms as one of the more intriguing positional battles at Etihad Stadium.
"I guess I would say the opposite because I'm the smaller bloke," he said. "The bigger blokes are tougher and especially when you have a bit of speed on you as well."
One thing is for sure, O'Connor is certain to be targeted by NZ even though they denied reports a photo of their team plans attempted to expose him as reported.
Added to his minimal time out wide, he was terrorised by Dan Carter's kicks in his run-on Bledisloe Cup debut in Wellington last year in a 33-6 thumping by the All Blacks.
O'Connor expects flyhalf Carter's pin-point bombs, which land just as their chasers arrive, will again be a feature of NZ's game plans.
Winger Cory Jane outleapt the utility back in Wellington for the All Blacks opening try while O'Connor mistimed and dropped his first high ball in last week's 30-13 win over the Springboks.
"Carter can put up a good high ball so I'll be ready for that," he said. "Carter's got the ball on a string."
While O'Connor is Australia's youngest player, he's more experienced in Bledisloe battles than eight teammates who are set to face NZ for the first time.
NSW centre Rob Horne is one who is savouring the prospect 10 years after being at a packed Olympic stadium as an 11-year-old when Lomu scored in the dying seconds for a 39-35 All Black win.
"That was unbelievable," he recalled on Thursday. "Like the other 100,000 fans there I was pretty filthy he went over."
