Lam back to face Chiefs
At a glance
The Hurricanes have their ‘‘best winger.’’
France-bound Julian Savea might be the recent form horse, but it hasn’t earned him a start in tomorrow’s clash with the Chiefs in Hamilton. The competition’s leading tryscorer, Ben Lam, will play on the left wing instead, in what’s a dress rehearsal for the Super Rugby quarterfinal between the same two teams in a week’s time.
Elsewhere, tighthead prop Jeff To’omaga-Allen’s recalled for what will be his hundredth Hurricanes appearance, while Vaea Fifita’s stop-start season has come to a halt again. This time it’s a toe injury, following on from the two bouts of concussion symptoms, a bone-bruise to a shoulder and the All Blacks camps that have previously sidelined him this season.
But it’s Lam and Savea and, by association Wes Goosen, Nehe Milner-Skudder and Jordie Barrett, that most folk will be interested in.
‘‘On balance, our best winger in the last month or so has probably been Julian and so we’ve given Ben and [right wing] Nehe benched an opportunity this week. Julian’s made way and Ben comes back in and he gets a chance to stake a claim,’’ Boyd explained.
Lam can be amazing, as he has already shown this season. But he can also be passive; both in terms of waiting for the game to come to him and then in contact situations. Whatever Lam does at FMG Stadium tomorrow, he needs to do it with intent.
Goosen stays at centre, where Boyd thought his performance against the Blues was ‘‘tidy’’.
‘‘[But] he’s not a given as well. If Wes doesn’t go so well, then we’d be comfortable to push Jordie back into 13 [from fullback], so there’s sort of four guys there playing for three positions and just whoever wears the reserve’s jersey is the only thing to be sorted out.’’
The Fifita situation, meanwhile, is a bit of a nuisance and means the Hurricanes will go into this game without a specialist lock on the bench. Fifita was ‘‘50-50’’ for tomorrow, but Boyd’s gone with the fit Michael Fatialofa alongside Sam Lousi in the second row and will push No 8 Blade Thomson or blindside flanker Brad Shields into there if the situation demands.
‘‘Fair to say he hasn’t played a lot of football,’’ Boyd said of Fifita.
‘‘He didn’t play for us before the June break, because of injury, and then didn’t get a lot of time with the All Blacks . . it’s not ideal for him. He hasn’t had a lot of constant football for us in the last six or eight weeks, but he’s a hell of an athlete and we’d hope that he’ll come right.’’
Ben May drops to the bench, to accommodate To’omaga-Allen’s return, while Chris Eves replaces Fraser Armstrong as the reserve loosehead prop. Finlay Christie takes over from Jamie Booth as the reserve halfback.
Overall it’s a strong team which Boyd expects to perform well. Do that and the result ought to take care of itself.