Hurricanes v Blues
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The Blues team is:
15 Matt Duffie, 14 Melani Nanai, 13 Michael Collins, 12 Rieko Ioane, 11 Caleb Clarke, 10 Stephen Perofeta, 9 Augustine Pulu ©; 8 Akira Ioane, 7 Blake Gibson, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Matiaha Martin, 4 Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, 3 Ofa Tuungafasi, 2 Matt Moulds, 1 Alex Hodgman
Reserves: 16 James Parsons, 17 Pauliasi Manu, 18 Sione Mafileo, 19 Ben Nee-Nee, 20 Murphy Taramai, 21 Sam Nock, 22 Bryn Gatland, 23 TJ Faiane
Jerome Kaino will become the second most capped Blues player when he starts in Saturday’s Investec Super Rugby clash against the Hurricanes in Wellington. Kaino, who heads to France after the season, will play his 138th game for the Blues on Saturday, to go past Tony Woodcock, and sit second on the all-time Blues list behind Keven Mealamu. The Blues welcome back their two leaders, captain Augustine Pulu, who will start, and stand-in captain James Parsons, who will come off the bench. Pulu is the only change to the starting line-up from the team that beat the Reds handsomely at Eden Park last week, while Akira Ioane, who this week confirmed his commitment to the club, is the only Blues player to have started in every game to date in 2018. Coach Tana Umaga said Kaino will again be a key motivating factor for his side. “Jerome means a lot to this team and achieving the milestone is great for him. The team wants to send him on his way in the best way we can and that is with performance. And if we get a good performance, the results will come. “We get valuable leadership back in the squad with Augustine and James, which is important in derby games against the likes of the Hurricanes. That said, both Sam Nock and Matt Moulds performed well last week. “Our attitude around the breakdown was a key for us last week against the Reds, which created some front-foot ball for our backs. Our forwards really dug-in. There are some work-ons around set piece as there always is, but we need that same attitude on attack and defence again. “I am sure the Hurricanes will be looking at ways to rectify their situation after three losses in a row, but we have nothing to lose. We will go down there and throw everything at them, get some pride and respect back and also make sure we send our High Chief away on a good note.” -
wow, Parsons hasnt started too many games off the bench!
Taramai's charmed life continues.
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Amazing how the Canes go from heros to zeros depending on whether Beauden is playing. He will make a difference, but man we're in a form slump at the moment.
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@no-quarter said in Hurricanes v Blues:
Amazing how the Canes go from heros to zeros depending on whether Beauden is playing. He will make a difference, but man we're in a form slump at the moment.
We've been average all year. It's just that we got away with some wins we barely deserved early in the season and now we are being found out
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@canefan said in Hurricanes v Blues:
@no-quarter said in Hurricanes v Blues:
Amazing how the Canes go from heros to zeros depending on whether Beauden is playing. He will make a difference, but man we're in a form slump at the moment.
We've been average all year. It's just that we got away with some wins we barely deserved early in the season and now we are being found out
...thanks to Beuaden sparking our backs and scoring plenty of tries against the run of play. Agree we haven't been great and IMO never looked liked winning the thing given the way our forwards were getting beaten so often.
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@no-quarter said in Hurricanes v Blues:
@canefan said in Hurricanes v Blues:
@no-quarter said in Hurricanes v Blues:
Amazing how the Canes go from heros to zeros depending on whether Beauden is playing. He will make a difference, but man we're in a form slump at the moment.
We've been average all year. It's just that we got away with some wins we barely deserved early in the season and now we are being found out
...thanks to Beuaden sparking our backs and scoring plenty of tries against the run of play. Agree we haven't been great and IMO never looked liked winning the thing given the way our forwards were getting beaten so often.
Our forwards are a shadow of the SR winning pack. Just like the old days
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@dice said in Hurricanes v Blues:
Pulu went the wrong way there. We had numbers on the right.
Very poor decision.
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