Canterbury team named to play North Harbour

Oct 6 • General News • 1252 Views • Comments Off on Canterbury team named to play North Harbour

Canterbury will play their first Ranfurly Shield defence on Friday night, taking on North Harbour at AMI Stadium. Canterbury Head Coach Scott Robertson has made five changes to the starting line up that beat Taranaki on Sunday, and named one debutant on the bench – lock Hamish Dalzell.

Hookers Ben Funnell and Nathan Vella have rotated, as have props Oli Jager and Siate Tokolahi, so that Funnell and Jager take the starting spots this week. Tom Sanders starts at 6, with Reed Prinsep providing loose forward cover from the bench. Ere Enari returns at halfback, and Richie Mo’unga at first five.

In a celebration of the Ranfurly Shield’s return to Canterbury, former Canterbury players from various Ranfurly Shield eras will be officially welcomed onto the field with the Shield by a Kapa Haka group before the game, and will then form a guard of honour for the teams’ entry to the field.

This week the team has been named by our Red & Black Members who had a training session with the team yesterday. Each one of them also got their photo taken with the Ranfurly Shield. The team naming can be viewed here.

Kick-off at AMI Stadium is at 7:35pm, and tickets are available through www.ticketdirect.co.nz or phone 0800 224 224.