The Vodafone Wellington Lions will be contesting their fourth Air New Zealand Cup final in five years when they meet Auckland at Eden Park on Saturday night at 7.35 pm.

The Vodafone Wellington Lions travel to play top qualifier Auckland on the back of a spirited 26-21 semi-final victory over Canterbury, outlasting the red and blacks with a winning formula of cohesive attacking play and steadfast defence.

Halfback Piri Weepu will captain the side in the season finale in the place of skipper Tamati Ellison who was ruled out during the week with a fractured eye socket, sustained against Canterbury. 

Ellison’s absence sees a reshuffle in the backline, where Ma’a Nonu switches from the right wing to fill the second five-eighth role and Hosea Gear comes off the bench to wear the No. 14 jersey.

In two other changes to the playing 22, World Cup All Blacks Rodney So’oialo and Conrad Smith start from the bench, So’oialo benefiting from a 5:2 forwards / backs split on the bench and Smith replacing Gear.

 Meanwhile Auckland have named two world Cup All Blacks in their playing 22, with hooker Keven Mealamu and midfielder Isaia Toeava on the bench.

The unbeaten Aucklanders return to their home ground for the final, where they beat Hawke’s Bay 38-3 last week in persistent rain, after defeating Taranaki in their quarter-final the previous week.

The Lions and Auckland play each other on Saturday for the first time in the 2007 Air New Zealand Cup, their last meeting being last year’s semi-final won 30-15 by the Lions.

The Lions did however beat Auckland 44-21 to retain the Fred Lucas Cup when they met in a pre-season fixture in July.

Wellington will be searching for their 5th National Provincial Championship title since the competition’s inception in 1976, previously winning in 1978, 1981, 1986 and 2000.

They have also finished runners-up to Auckland on four occasions, finishing joint second with Canterbury in 1985, outright second in 1987 and beaten finalists in 1999 and 2003.

As well being the fourth final appearance in five years for the Lions, Saturday’s title decider will also be their sixth in the last nine years and their third against Auckland. They will hope to make it third time lucky in 2007 after previous final losses to Auckland in 1999 at Eden Park (18-24) and in 2003 in Wellington (29-41).

The two sides have previously met twice at Eden Park in semi-finals, Wellington prevailing last year and 48-23 in 2000 en route to beating Canterbury in the final.

The Lions have defeated Auckland in three of their last five visits to Eden Park, with 2002’s 46-42 win one of a string of epic Wellington – Auckland clashes at the venue in the modern era.

Others include Wellington’s 1991’s Ranfurly Shield challenge to an All Blacks laden Auckland (21-31), 1997’s high scoring thriller (42-44) and 2005’s narrow defeat (22-29) despite out scoring Auckland three tries to two.

Left wing Shannon Paku, who has won NPC finals with both Wellington (2000) and Auckland (2003), says the team is confident they can topple their old rivals again on Saturday.

“We’ve been training really well over the last few weeks so it’s pretty much just carrying on from there. The good thing is we know what we want to do and so we can just focus on our game.”

Paku, who has scored seven tries heading into the final, praises the big-hearted efforts of the Lions forwards for much of their success this year.

“They are just fronting up week in and week out, they are just hitting the rucks and that’s all you can ask of your forwards.”

The Lions pack remains unchanged from last week’s semi-final win.