Crusaders team to play the Highlanders

Jul 10 • General News, Super Rugby • 1638 Views • Comments Off on Crusaders team to play the Highlanders

Crusaders head coach Todd Blackadder has made just one change to his team to face the Highlanders this Saturday night.

Lock Sam Whitelock, who was a late withdrawal from last week’s team, has returned to the starting line-up, which means Jimmy Tupou is on the bench. The rest of the line-up is the same as that which beat the Blues last weekend.

Eighteen weeks of competition culminate in this southern derby on Saturday night. It is the final round of pool play and will determine log placings and qualifiers for the play-off rounds. While the Crusaders are already guaranteed a play-off spot, they are also working towards a second place qualification that would see them proceed directly to a home semi-final.

“That will require us to beat the Highlanders and beat them well,” Blackadder said. “The Highlanders are also a gutsy side though and we know that they will be putting everything they’ve got into this encounter. We are going to have to put in the performance of the season to come out on top, and that is exactly what the team has committed to doing.”

Kick-off is at 7:35pm Saturday at AMI Stadium (Addington).

Crusaders team to play the Highlanders:

1. Wyatt Crockett	RESERVES:
2. Ben Funnell	16. Corey Flynn
3. Owen Franks	17. Joe Moody
4. Dominic Bird	18. Nepo Laulala
5. Samuel Whitelock	19. Jimmy Tupou
6. Jordan Taufua	20. Luke Whitelock
7. Matt Todd	21. Willi Heinz
8. Kieran Read (C)	22. Tom Taylor
9. Andy Ellis	23. Johnny McNicholl
10.Colin Slade
11.Nemani Nadolo
12.Dan Carter
13.Ryan Crotty (VC)
14.Kieron Fonotia
15.Israel Dagg