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All Blacks first five Dan Carter has been named in the starting line-up to face the Wallabies.

An injury to Luke McAlister at training today has thrown a scare through the All Blacks camp, but hasn’t prompted a change to Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup match in Sydney.

McAlister is one of three changes to the All Blacks test side, named today to start at second five against Australia despite sitting out the majority of a two-hour training run at North Sydney Oval.

Ma’a Nonu has been relegated to the test reserves, but spent the majority of the session running in the midfield outside Dan Carter, who will predictably start at first-five.

The other change to the side is the demotion of No 8 Rodney So’oialo to the reserves, the first time he has not been the first choice selection since 2005.

The extent of McAlister’s problems is unclear, but it appeared to be recurrence of the back spasms that saw him miss several weeks of club rugby in the build up to the first Bledisloe Cup test in Auckland last month.

If he is ruled out it would throw Wellington’s Nonu a lifeline to extend his run of 21 consecutive starts, but at this stage he will take his place on the bench.

McAlister can ill-afford another set back after a turbulent return from two years in England following the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

He struggled during his early efforts off the bench in two tests against France, then had a shocker against Italy at first-five.

There have been mixed efforts for North Harbour in recent weeks both at second five and first-five in a heavy loss last weekend to Otago.

ALL BLACKS: 15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Luke McAlister, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Isaac Ross, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 Tony Woodcock. Reserves: 16 Aled de Malmanche, 17 John Afoa, 18 Jason Eaton, 19 Rodney So’oialo, 20 Brendon Leonard, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Ma’a Nonu.