Canes hope stars can take on Lions
Fingers crossed Julian Savea, Jordie Barrett, Vaea Fifita and Ngani Laumape will find themselves at Westpac Stadium on Tuesday.
The Hurricanes’ quartet were left out of the All Blacks’ 23 to meet the British and Irish Lions in Saturday’s test at Eden Park. Their Super Rugby team are next on the Lions’ itinerary, leading to hopes the foursome will released to line up in Wellington.
‘‘We’ve got seven bodies in there and we’ve got four not in the 23 so, if they don’t see them as part of the 23 for the following week, then potentially they will release them back to us,’’ Hurricanes head coach Chris Boyd said yesterday.
Beauden Barrett, Ardie Savea and TJ Perenara are the Hurricanes that did make the test cut, with Julian Savea’s non-selection on the left wing, after a busy performance in the 78-0 win over Samoa, ‘‘a little’’ surprising to Boyd.
Fifita and Jordie Barrett made their test debuts in that match, while Laumape appears to be fourth in the All Blacks’ midfield queue. Then there’s hooker Dane Coles, who’s the ninth Hurricane having some All Blacks involvement, but is in no danger of playing for either side.
The Hurricanes will be told on Sunday if any of their All Blacks are going to be available and Boyd was cagey about whether we should expect any big names to be among them.
After losses to a fairly strong Blues side and middling Highlanders lineup, the Lions’ midweek team easily beat the depleted Chiefs on Tuesday. As their Saturday team had done against New Zealand Maori, the Lions matched a strong set-piece performance with stifling defence.
The Hurricanes probably have a bit of work to do on their scrum and lineout, but are relaxed about the other. ‘‘We defend quite similarly to the way they defend, so we have a bit of an understanding of where we find it difficult to defend in that kind of system,’’ said Boyd.
In concert with coaching partner John Plumtree, this is Boyd’s third crack at the Lions. In 2005, their Wellington team were beaten 23-6, before the pair decamped to Durban and coached the Sharks to a 39-3 defeat to the tourists.
South Africa is very much on Boyd’s mind ahead of the Super Rugby playoffs. The Hurricanes have the Crusaders left to play, before embarking on a far-flung finals run.
If the defending champions can beat the Crusaders, they’ll meet the Brumbies in a quarterfinal in Canberra. Lose and they’re likely to play the Stormers in Cape Town.
‘‘If we go to the Stormers, that means we’ve finished sixth and the Crusaders have finished first, so we’d have to come back and play the Crusaders [in a semifinal],’’ Boyd said.
To go the Brumbies route, the Hurricanes would have to beat the Crusaders and then hope the Lions do the same against the Sharks, along with the Highlanders beating the Reds and the Chiefs beating the Brumbies.
‘‘If those things all happen, then if we go to the Brumbies and were lucky enough to win, we’d go from there to the Lions. So Canberra-Johannesburg or Cape-Town-Christchurch.’’