More blues for Canes after loss

Several Hurricanes forwards are injured, but who they are and how long they will be out for won’t be known until next week.

Hurricanes coach John Plumtree watched on as props Jeffery Toomaga-allen and Alex Fidow, as well as loose forward Gareth Evans, picked up injuries in their 38-31 pre-season loss to the Blues in Mangatainoka on Saturday.

None of the injuries appeared overly serious, but added to what is a growing injury list.

‘‘The big worry for us is a couple of injuries that we’ve got now going forward, probably three or four more than I would like at this time of year, so that’s disappointing after going through a really good pre-season to lose some key guys at this time,’’ Plumtree said.

As for Saturday’s injuries, Plumtree was unsure of the severity of them.

‘‘Gareth Evans came off, Alex Fidow, we’ll just have to suss them all out, but we’ve got a couple of other issues as well that could slow us down a little bit, particularly in the forwards, but we’ll still be pretty competitive,’’ Plumtree said.

When asked the identities of the players under the ‘‘couple of other issues’’ category, Plumtree replied: ‘‘I’m not telling you’’.

That leaves a bit of guesswork, but what was known was prop Toby Smith was a late scratching from Saturday’s match, while lock Sam Lousi hasn’t been sighted in a pre-season match, but was photographed riding a stationary bike on Tuesday.

If Lousi is out, that leaves a big hole at lock given last season’s other starting lock, Michael Fatialofa, departed in the offseason.

If Vaea Fifita is going to stay in the loose forwards, it means James Blackwell, with six Super Rugby caps, is the senior fit lock.

Next cabs off the rank are the talented, but horribly injuryprone Geoff Cridge and Isaia Walker-leawere, who boast a solitary Super Rugby cap each. Manawatu’s Liam Mitchell started against the Blues on Saturday, but with just 14 provincial games to his name, it would be a big leap to make his debut in Sydney against the Waratahs next Saturday.

If Smith, Toomaga-allen or Fidow are out, that would leave Fraser Armstrong, Chris Eves and Ben May as the three fit props.

It was fair enough that Plumtree didn’t want to reveal the identities of his injured players. That can be done later in the week when he names his team. There is no sense in giving the Waratahs a full week to plan for the absences and their replacements.

But that’s won’t make it any less concerning for Hurricanes fans, who already know the team will be without All Blacks firstfive Beauden Barrett as he sits out one of his two All Blacks rest weeks.

It seems a genuine toss-up as to who will replace Barrett between Fletcher Smith and Jackson Garden-bachop.

Smith seems to have the pedigree for the job but Gardenbachop has matched it with him in terms of performance across the two pre-season matches and knows the backline well after making four appearances last season. Matamata galloper On The Rocks provided rider Jake Bayliss with his second New Zealand Group One prize when he stormed to victory in the Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m) on Saturday.

Australian-born Bayliss, who is enjoying his second extended riding stint in New Zealand, had picked up his first elite level victory when successful on Volpe Veloce in the 2018 Sistema Railway (1200m).

Brought to New Zealand in 2017 to ride for trainers Mike Moroney and Pam Gerard, Bayliss repaid their faith with a superb effort to guide On The Rocks to victory at Te Rapa for the Matamata stable.

Bayliss had the Alamosa entire well-placed in midfield in the early stages of the contest before setting out after the pacemakers with 600m to run. On The Rocks tracked hot favourite