Nelson Mail

More blues for Canes after loss

- Liam Hyslop liam.hyslop@stuff.co.nz

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.

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