Blues v Chiefs

KiwiMurph

Blues named.

Collins benched. It is a miracle.

This is absolutely a must win game for the Blues. With the number of injuries the Chiefs have the Blues have a golden opportunity at an NZ derby win, and at home to add more expectation.

Having said that typically the Chiefs go up an extra gear when they play the Blues and the Blues have yet to demonstrate they can actually close NZ derbies out - so I'm still expecting a Chiefs win.

The team is:

1 Pauliasi Manu, 2 James Parsons, 3 Ofa Tuungafasi, 4 Patrick Tuipulotu, 5 Scott Scrafton, 6 Jimmy Tupou, 7 Murphy Taramai, 8 Akira Ioane; 9 Augustine Pulu ©, 10 Bryn Gatland, 11 Rieko Ioane, 12 TJ Faiane, 13 George Moala, 14 Matt Duffie,15 Melani Nanai

Reserves: 16 Leni Apisai, 17 Alex Hodgman, 18 Michael Tamoaieta, 19 Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, 20 Jerome Kaino, 21 Sam Nock, 22 Daniel Kirkpatrick, 23 Michael Collins

The changes in the backline will see TJ Faiane in place of Sonny Bill Williams, who has not recovered sufficiently from a knee injury but is expected to join the squad that heads to South Africa at the weekend.

Duluth

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All Black Patrick Tuipulotu, who came off the bench in the narrow loss to the Highlanders in Dunedin last week, will get his start at lock with Scott Scrafton, with the experienced Jimmy Tupou back to full fitness to start at loose forward.

All Black Jerome Kaino, who earlier today announced he will finish his distinguished career at the Blues at the end of the season, will come off the bench for his first game of the season after recovery from injury.

The changes in the backline will see TJ Faiane in place of Sonny Bill Williams, who has not recovered sufficiently from a knee injury but is expected to join the squad that heads to South Africa at the weekend. Also Melani Nanai gets a start at fullback with Michael Collins to come off the bench.

The other change in the pack has the experienced Pauliasi Manu to start at loosehead prop with Alex Hodgman as reserve.

Coach Tana Umaga said the side had produced a lot of excellent work in the opener against the Highlanders.

“For much of the game we put in some solid performances in most phases of our game, and in that regard most of the team has been retained,” said Umaga.

“Some lack of discipline proved very costly and we have addressed that this week. At the same time we did a lot of very good things. We take confidence from that going into this game, knowing though that we will need to take a further step up if we are to get the result at home that we and our fans are pretty keen to earn.”

Umaga said the loss of Williams was significant but that TJ Faiane has been impressive in training and brings a different skillset to the game. And he was very pleased that Tuipulotu and Kaino are back in the playing squad

Pleased they left Akira at 8.

A much better looking side with Nanai starting and 2 the experienced loosises back

number9

Based upon the Blues v Highlanders game I would have had both Hodgman and Collins starting. The Blues had a solid scrum through the first half and Collins I thought played albeit for a couple of early penalties, played very well. Blues did not finish strong at all, Manu looked very laboured although he was on for only 30 minutes and Nanai looked erratic and a little lost. The Blues did not finish strong at all.

Bones

@number9 yeah funny to see Collins dropped after having played seemingly better game than usual (visibly at least).

Pretty fearsome backs to bring on late in the game.

Tim

@bones Never underestimate Daniel Kirkpatrick!

Chris B.

@kiwimurph said in Blues v Chiefs:

This is absolutely a must win game for the Blues. With the number of injuries the Chiefs have the Blues have a golden opportunity at an NZ derby win, and at home to add more expectation.

Having said that typically the Chiefs go up an extra gear when they play the Blues and the Blues have yet to demonstrate they can actually close NZ derbies out - so I'm still expecting a Chiefs win.

Big change to previous years is Colin Cooper instead of Rennie.

This might be the most important game of the season for the Blues - a win and they're off and running, a home loss and they're under pressure with the other NZ teams already down the track.

I guess I'll wait and see the Chiefs team, but given the injury news so far the Blues should be favourites.