Auckland team to face Canterbury

Aug 27 • General News, Mitre 10 Cup, New Zealand • 2280 Views • Comments Off on Auckland team to face Canterbury

Charles Piutau of Auckland is tackled by Ryan Crotty of Canterbury during the 2010 ITM Cup. Photo by Getty Images.

ITM Cup round two

Wednesday August 29

AMI Stadium, Christchurch

Kick-off 7.35pm (New Zealand Time)

Auckland head coach Wayne Pivac has made just one injury-enforced change to his starting line-up for Wednesday’s round two clash withCanterburyinChristchurch.

Captain Daniel Braid suffered a groin tear during Auckland’s opening match against Hawke’s Bay on Thursday night, and while scans revealed the injury was not as serious as first feared, he will still miss at least three to four weeks.

“We thought it could have been a lot longer than three or four weeks and that could still change over the next week or so but Daniel’s working really hard behind the scenes to get it right,” Pivac said.

“Groin injuries can take a bit of time but certainly Daniel is quite upbeat about it and the progress so far is very good.”

Sean Polwart will start in Braid’s absence, with 19-year-old flanker Sean Brookman coming onto the bench for the first time.

All Black Piri Weepu is also poised to make his first start forAucklandafter being named in jersey number 20.

“Piri’s got a book launch on today which was pre-planned, he probably didn’t expect to be made available but he is available and he’ll get some game time off the bench but he won’t start as he’s not at training today,” Pivac said.

“He’ll be in for a meeting this afternoon as soon as he’s freed up so we’ll go through everything he needs to go through and we’re confident he’ll be able to do a good job for us off the bench.”

After a 16 minute lapse in concentration in the second half almost costAucklandvictory against Hawke’s Bay, Pivac has implored his side to play for the full 80 on Wednesday against aCanterburyoutfit which will no doubt be seething following their loss to Tasman.

“I was really happy with the way we were fairly clinical in that first 40 minutes against Hawke’s Bay. We want to replicate that but also go in with it, particularly straight after half time which is a very important phase of the game to get that roll on again. We weren’t able to do that against Hawke’s Bay so we’ll be trying to do that this week.”

TheAucklandteam to faceCanterburyat AMI Stadium on Wednesday night (kick-off 7.35pm) is: