Beaver’s back to lead the way
Like he did so memorably last year in the win over Wales, veteran first five-eighth Stephen Donald will take on Chiefs captaincy duty once more, when they meet the British and Irish Lions in Hamilton tomorrownight.
The country’s folk hero following his 2011 World Cup-winning exploits, ‘Beaver’ was named the skipper when Dave Rennie’s team was announced yesterday.
The 33-year-old will take charge of a largely inexperienced unit, though one which features two fellow Chiefs centurions, with Hika Elliot and Liam Messam on the bench and backing up from the New Zealand Maori’s 32-10 loss to the Lions in Rotorua on Saturday night, while Tim Nanai-williams features after playing for Samoa against the All Blacks on Friday night.
Rennie indicated all of his players in the Maori squad were in contention to face the Lions for a second time in four days, bar Tawera Kerr-barlow, who was linking back up with the All Blacks ahead of next weekend’s first test at Eden Park.
‘‘They were all pretty keen to play,’’ Rennie said. ‘‘Our thinking along that is a number of guys played big minutes last night [Saturday], and we’ve got other players who are fresh and keen and we’ve got confidence in.’’
Rennie opted to leave out Kane Hames (62 minutes), Charlie Ngatai (80) and James Lowe (80), while Damian Mckenzie (67) was a late unavailability after leaving the park with a neck injury in Rotorua.
‘‘He took a couple of knocks late in the game,’’ Rennie said. ‘‘We did consider him backing up off the bench to back up Beaver, but we made a decision this morning [Sunday] to leave him out.?
The Maori players will be able to offer first-hand insight into the Lions’ style, along with Aidan
Ross, Lachlan Boshier and Luteru Laulala who featured in the tour opener for the Provincial Barbarians. But Rennie has been schooling up and knows what to expect.
‘‘We’ve looked at a lot of footage, we know Gats [Lions coach Warren Gatland] pretty well, so we’re pretty clear on what they’ll bring, and we’ll have to really steel up,’’ he said, noting the tourists’ set piece was formidable against the Maori.