Hurricanes v Chiefs
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Hurricanes team for the QF:
1 Toby Smith
2 Ricky Riccitelli
3 Jeff Toomaga-Allen
4 Michael Fatialofa
5 Sam Lousi
6 Brad Shields (c) or Reed Prinsep
7 Gareth Evans
8 Blade Thomson
9 TJ Perenara
10 Beauden Barrett
11 Ben Lam
12 Ngani Laumape
13 Jordie Barrett
14 Julian Savea
15 Nehe Milner-SkudderReserves
16 James O'Reilly
17 Chris Eves
18 Ben May
19 Vaea Fifita
20 Reed Prinsep or Sam Henwood
21 Jamie Booth
22 Ihaia West
23 Wes Goosen or Jonah Lowe.
JEFF TOOMAGA-ALLEN TO START IN HIS 100TH SUPER RUGBY MATCH
Popular Hurricanes prop Jeff Toomaga-Allen has been named to start in Friday night's highly anticipated quarter-final against the Chiefs at Westpac Stadium in what will be his 100th Investec Super Rugby match. Toomaga-Allen, who brought up his 100th match for the club last week in Hamilton, will become just the 15th Hurricanes player to reach the milestone. The 27-year-old made his debut for the Hurricanes in 2012 against the Stormers alongside long-time teammates Ben May, TJ Perenara and Brad Shields. He will be the fourth player this season to reach the mark after Beauden Barrett, Perenara and Shields. Hurricanes head coach Chris Boyd has named a largely settled squad for the quarter-final. Captain Brad Shields has been bracketed to allow him as much time as possible to get over a rib injury while Gareth Evans will start in the No 7 jersey in place of Sam Henwood. There are minimal changes in the back line, although Boyd has moved Jordie Barrett to centre to allow the return of crowd favourite and centurion Julian Savea to the starting XV. Savea will be on the right wing with Ben Lam on the left as Nehe Milner-Skudder moves to fullback as the Hurricanes prepare to face the Chiefs for the second straight week after the two sides played out an exciting 80 minutes in Hamilton. Wes Goosen, who has been recovering from the head knock he suffered last week, has been bracketed on the bench with Jonah Lowe while the squad has been further strengthened by the return from injury of All Black Vaea Fifita. Boyd said the squad was delighted to have another opportunity to play in front of their home fans and believed the Hurricanes could deliver a performance good enough to keep their season and title hopes alive. He has been impressed with the way the squad has prepared in the build-up to the match and could sense the excitement levels growing by the day. Hurricanes fans are being urged to purchase their tickets early from www.ticketdirect.co.nz to avoid potential long queues on match day. -
Good team aside from not having a 7 ... but on paper should roll the Chiefs, however they're in such poor form at the moment that it's probably still 50/50 (Hometown's hometown-ness will be balanced out by the fact he's a former Chiefs so he'll not favour either side).
Re: Prinsep, is he worth his contract extension? I've never seen anything outstanding from him (and obviously from a Magpies point of view I'd rather the Canes had locked up Tu'u in their loosies rotation rather than see him signed by the Highlanders).
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@tim said in Hurricanes v Chiefs:
@nepia said in Hurricanes v Chiefs:
Prinsep
Signed for another year, I think.
Yes, was announced yesterday, but he has re-signed for two years.
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@tim said in Hurricanes v Chiefs:
@nepia said in Hurricanes v Chiefs:
Prinsep
Signed for another year, I think.
I know, that's why I said contract extension.
I'm just wondering if any Ferners rate him highly.
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Hoping home ground game goes our way. Don't have much else going for us, def need our forwards to all hit form to match that chiefs pack. BB v DMac will be fucking awesome though.
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I would love a Chiefs win
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Looking at these sides and recent form I don't believe the Canes have a hope of winning. The Canes forward pack is one of the worst they have put out esp in recent years. Individually all are OK but there are no impact or top level AB forwards to provide any punch or moments of brilliance. We are missing two AB hookers and Fidow and Savea who can provide some impact are both out. So its an unbalanced pack with two locks that don't work well together and two props that were ordinary in recent matches. The best the Canes can hope for from the forwards is to hold on throughout the match
And Plumtree use to be able to work magic with these types of forward packs but recently this has gone. The backs have wonderful players but they are ineptly coached by a dreadful attack coach. Ive said before the only attacking plan is smash through with Laumape or kick up and under's and hope for the best.
The only hope for the Canes is for the backs to totally ignore this limited game plan and throw the ball around. except when hard on defense. then clear the f+++ing ball. Not play around on the touch line. And hope luck (and a lot of it) is on their side
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@winger said in Hurricanes v Chiefs:
Looking at these sides and recent form I don't believe the Canes have a hope of winning. The Canes forward pack is one of the worst they have put out esp in recent years. Individually all are OK but there are no impact or top level AB forwards to provide any punch or moments of brilliance. We are missing two AB hookers and Fidow and Savea who can provide some impact are both out. So its an unbalanced pack with two locks that don't work well together and two props that were ordinary in recent matches. The best the Canes can hope for from the forwards is to hold on throughout the match
And Plumtree use to be able to work magic with these types of forward packs but recently this has gone. The backs have wonderful players but they are ineptly coached by a dreadful attack coach. Ive said before the only attacking plan is smash through with Laumape or kick up and under's and hope for the best.
The only hope for the Canes is for the backs to totally ignore this limited game plan and throw the ball around. except when hard on defense. then clear the f+++ing ball. Not play around on the touch line. And hope luck (and a lot of it) is on their side
Inciteful. We will lose the battle up front, don't have the razzle dazzle in the backs of previous years, and the Chiefs have some big guns coming back. I can't see the Canes winning this, sadly.
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@winger Canes capacity to clear the ball wont be helped with Skudder playing fullback. He has a limited long kicking game. He’s one of the better chip/grubber and chase guys going around but in terms of clearances he has rugby league-esque type range.
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I may be relying on some TSF game commentary for this one. Have just checked into a decent hotel in Switzerland with strong wifi but Sky UK are pretty good at the whack-a-mole game of blocking VPN IP addresses. Have a few lined up and hopefully one works but if not I may be calling on here.
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