Coach Wayne Smith Tuesday named an unchanged All Black rugby squad for the upcoming Test against South Africa and rallied to the
defence of his under fire players.

Smith and fellow selectors Tony Gilbert and Peter Thorburn have resisted any temptation to bring in new players for the Test in Auckland on August 25.

"I know everyone around the country would rip the guts out of the squad but we trust these players," Smith said.

"We picked these players for a reason and they've won every match up until now. We didn't play terribly well against Australia but we didn't play really badly, either."

Smith said the selectors pondered long and hard about whether to bring new faces into the 23-man squad. "We looked at some others in the squad of 30 but we really feel we've got the best ones here.

"Everyone's throwing flak at us but there was no lack of effort put in," Smith said. The starting 15 to play the Springboks will be named next Wednesday.

Smith came to the defence of Taine Randell and Ron Cribb, two of the players whose displays against Australia drew criticism. Australia had made about 180 tackles, New Zealand about 120, of
which Randell made 17, more than opposite George Smith.

Cribb had made 14 tackles, got over the advantage line and made some good off-loads. "I'm surprised at the criticism. Clearly, the penalty try when
Cribb tackled Joe Roff without the ball was wrong but that should not colour the overall picture."

Smith said it was his understanding Christian Cullen would get some game time for Wellington against Taranaki on Friday night but he would not be rushed back into action for the All Blacks.

"Our attitude with Christian is not to put any pressure on him. He needs to come back and find his way into the game."

Smith indicated Cullen, fully fit, was a possibility for the return Bledisloe Cup Test in Sydney on September 1. The reserves from last Saturday's Test would be available for their provinces in the NPC this weekend.

"It's up to them and their NPC coaches whether it's best for them to play or just to have time at home." The reserves were the Canterbury quartet of Andrew Mehrtens, Chris Jack, Leon MacDonald and Mark Hammett, Waikato's Mark Cooksley and Marty Holah and the Otago pair of Byron Kelleher and Carl Hayman.

Otago has the bye this weekend, which Smith described as "a shame" for Kelleher and Hayman.

Smith said the All Blacks' skills at the breakdown were not good enough and they were not able to get the ball wide into spaces when they were available.

"If we had done we wouldn't be having this discussion now, because the Aussies didn't create much, either. They were getting pretty much the same sort of ball we were but their solution on the second or third phase was to kick it.

"Unfortunately, we weren't that clever. We kept trying to batter away, throw a miracle ball, and gave it back to them." - Sapa-NZPA