Savea might return early

Chin up Hurricanes fans. Amid the doom and gloom a ray of light has emerged around star All Blacks loose forward Ardie Savea.

It has not been the best of off-seasons for the Wellington Super Rugby franchise, starting with influential first five-eighth Beauden Barrett deciding to sever his ties with the franchise and join the Blues on a souped-up four-year deal.

That was set to leave the Hurricanes without their two most inspirational players of recent years for more or less the entire 2019 season.

The Wellington franchise, who won the competition for the first time in 2016, has made the semifinals or better for five straight years. A sixth looked a forlorn prospect.

Then, to compound matters, when Ian Foster won the top All Blacks job for the next two years it emerged that highly respected Hurricanes head coach John Plumtree was to be part of his hand-picked support group as his lead assistant.

That has subsequently seen Plumtree’s assistant Jason Holland promoted to the top job.

But Plumtree, at his All Blacks announcement press conference in Auckland, has delivered much needed positive news for Hurricanes fans around the likely return to action of Savea in 2020.

‘‘His operation wasn’t as bad as they thought it was going to be, and we’re hoping he’s going to be right back into the Hurricanes setup in about three-and-a-half months,’’ Plumtree told Stuff.

Plumtree said early indications post a successful surgery was that Savea could be back around round 7 or 8 of the season, as long as his rehab went according to plan.