Crunch decisions for ‘Canes
Whether to start Ardie Savea, and what to do with Jordie Barrett, are two lengthy discussion points for the Hurricanes coaching staff as they return to training today.
Savea wearing No 8 against the Crusaders in Wellington on Sunday afternoon looks more likely than fullback Barrett (shoulder) taking the field, although coach Jason Holland rates the latter a 50-50 chance.
Whatever their starting 15 for the Super Rugby Aotearoa round two match, the Hurricanes need a sharp lift after they were outmuscled and outplayed by the Blues who won 30-20 before a heaving Eden Park crowd of 43,000 – the hosts’ fifth straight victory of 2020.
‘‘They deserved the win and we’ve got a bit of work to do. None of it is really complicated work. It’s all around the simple parts of our game which we base everything on… work rate, clean carries and getting some width in our game,’’ Holland said.
‘‘We couldn’t get going, which is completely in our court, and the Blues defended us well, and put pressure on our lineout and we couldn’t gain momentum.’’
The dynamic Savea at his best is a big driver of that momentum, which leaves Holland with a tricky call on his hands. Savea trotted onto Eden Park for his first top-level match in 33 weeks, post knee surgery, with the Blues leading 21-13 in the 52nd minute and asserting their superiority.
It was a tough reintroduction and as Savea told Sky Sport: ‘‘It’s the most nervous I’ve been before a game. All sorts of feelings. I’m just really glad to get 30 [minutes] under my belt and just slowly build throughout the season.’’
Holland said he was torn as to whether to start Savea or keep him as an impact player for now, given his lack of game time.
‘‘He’s just growing in confidence every day. We had our internal hit out [on June 5] and the first 10 minutes he was really tentative and getting a bit of confidence back. It’s been a long time since he played some footy,’’ Holland said. ‘‘Then the last 25 minutes he was the Ardie we all know, he was into it and a menace at rucks and carrying like a lunatic.
‘‘It was a bit of the same [on Sunday], first game of footy at that tempo and it was pretty physical. He’ll come on leaps and bounds from that and should be good to go and nice and confident in that knee.’’
Barrett, one of the Hurricanes’ most influential figures prelockdown, will have his shoulder assessed again today.
‘‘We don’t want to risk him [Barrett] at all and make sure we do the right thing by Jordie. He wasn’t stable enough and we needed to get more rehab into him. Probably 50-50 at the moment, but we’ll make a call in the next day or two.’’
Otherwise Holland expects a full complement to choose from. Co-captain TJ Perenara and replacement hooker Asafo Aumua both had wounds above their eyes stitched, while another All Black Vaea Fifita is cleared to return after a toe injury forced his late withdrawal in Auckland.