As was the case with many of the Super 12 matches the closeness of the Tri-Nations games (relative to the mainly one-sided International series) has meant that defense is paramount and therefore Tackles are still King.

Sure the new rules have balanced things out a lot but looking down the list of top fantasy performers so far Stirling Mortlock (who has had two huge games and is currently number one) is the only guy in the top 10 who scores the bulk of his fantasy points in ways other than tackling. In fact with a quick glance down the top 30 I can only count 4 other guys (Lomu, Latham, Cullen & Mehrtens) who haven't relied on defense to get on the list. (tip: if you haven't made use of this top performers list in the past then you are missing out on some key info, especially if you have got some good $$ to throw around.)

So assuming all is right in the world (and the All Blacks kick ass!) then the big scorers on the weekend will be the tackling machines, and given the Wallabies wonderful ball retention skills the AB players are likely to be the ones getting far more tackling practise so if you have a choice buy Kiwi instead of Australian (this philosophy applies universally really!).

The other obvious reason to stock up on All Blacks is that they play South Africa (in SA) the following weekend while the Aussies have a break to lick their wounds.

So which Men in Black should you pick?

With the revolving door policy likely to continue you are probably best to wait until the team is named on Wednesday night, but if you are impatient (like me!) and want to get these guys cheaper then here are my suggestions.

I expect the AB team will be very similar to the one that played Australia in Sydney two weeks ago. So the number 13 will probably go back to Alama, (leaving Mark Robinson out of the squad all together), and Flavell will go back to the bench in favour of Norm Maxwell. The one change from Sydney will be Kronfeld holding onto his starting job this time, with Robertson coming off the bench.

Of course with the bench being a big part of the game plan there are some valuable players that will start the game warming the pine, if you can you may prefer to avoid any guys who are likely to play less than 80 minutes. Guys in this category include: Merhtens/Brown, Marshall/Kelleher, Kronfeld/Robertson, Maxwell/Flavell, Hoeft/Dowd, and Oliver/Hammet.

I'll leave it up to you to work out who is left! Good luck for this week and go the Blacks!