Is Ardie a bolter for Saturday?

For a bloke who is injured, Ardie Savea did a great impression of looking fully fit.

It was only Friday when Hurricanes head coach Chris Boyd said ‘‘we won’t get anyone back’’ for this weekend’s Super Rugby semifinal against the Crusaders.

Asked if that included Savea, who is battling back from a highankle sprain, Boyd nodded.

Attack coach Jason Holland had to soften that stance a little yesterday, because of how strongly the openside flanker was training in the background. From the straight-line jogging of last week, Savea has rapidly progressed to strenuous speed and agility stuff under the watchful eye of team physiotherapist Cam Shaw and assistant Leevan Santos.

‘‘Oh, only a small chance. We haven’t really talked about it at the moment. He’s a real outside chance [and] he’s ticking away at the boxes he needs to tick and more realistically he might need a little bit more time I think,’’ Holland said.

Savea suffered the injury during the All Blacks’ 49-14 win over France on June 23 and only began jogging again last Monday. But as he went through various short, sharp side-to-side sprints, then stretched it out to repeated 50-metre efforts, you wondered how many could be.

Sam Henwood, then Gareth Evans in the 32-31 quarterfinal win over the Chiefs, have both done fine jobs in Savea’s absence but he’s a special player and this is a do-or-die fixture on Saturday. The temptation to play him must be pretty substantial.

The Hurricanes will need all the smart, combative players they can muster if they’re to beat the Crusaders at AMI Stadium. They were naive and inept the last time they went there, losing 24-13.

The Hurricanes didn’t adapt to the wet conditions, attempting to play too much expansive rugby in their own half. When that didn’t more boxes there