Hurricanes Head Home to Tackle Force
Jack Lam will make his first start at openside flanker, following an ACL reconstruction last year. Lam is one of four changes introduced to the forward pack for this match against the Western Force, which also sees other players return from injury to start this Friday night.
The other three changes includes Dane Coles, who will return to the starting hooker position this week. Jeremy Thrush is back in the pack after recovering from his lower ankle sprain and Jeffery Toomaga-Allen comes into the tighthead jersey.
The return of Thrush to the Hurricanes line-up has allowed Mark Hammett to rest Jason Eaton after starting all seven matches this season. TJ Perenara also gets a bit of a break with Chris Smylie given the nod to start at halfback. “We saw last year we can’t rely on each of our players to be available for every match, so we always wanted to be able to give Chris a few more minutes in the starting position at some point,” said Hammett.
With Lam’s selection, young gun Ardie Savea also gets a week off, with Karl Lowe on the bench.
Hammett added, “When we selected Ardie for his first game we wanted to give him a couple of weeks of game time and then a rest. He is still only 19 and we want to make sure he enjoys a full season of Super Rugby rather than wearing him down early in the year. We are lucky we have a lot of experience in our loose forwards to be able to support his development as a Super Rugby player.”
On the bench, Reggie Goodes steps in as the back prop. Victor Vito (calf) and Ben May (elbow) were unavailable for selection this week due to injury.
This game will be the visitors first on New Zealand soil this season, a week following their two point win over the Crusaders at NIB Stadium.
Kick off this Friday is 7.35pm at Westpac Stadium.
Media Note: If you wish to attend today’s media session at midday, please have your requests to Bronwyn as soon as possible.
The Hurricanes team is as follows:
- Ben Franks
- Dane Coles
- Jeffery Toomaga-Allen
- Jeremy Thrush
- Mark Reddish
- Brad Shields
- Jack Lam
- Faifili Levave
- Chris Smylie
- Tusi Pisi
- Julian Savea
- Tim Bateman
- Conrad Smith (c)
- Alapati Leiua
- Beauden Barrett
RESERVES
- Motu Matu’u
- Reggie Goodes
- James Broadhurst
- Karl Lowe
- TJ Perenara
- Reynold Lee-Lo
- Andre Taylor
Related Posts
« EP Kings Team announced to play Sharks MTN Golden Lions Team announced for battle with Steval Pumas (Vodacom Cup) »
