Ardron makes timely return for the Chiefs
The return of Tyler Ardron comes at just the right time for the Chiefs, as they get set to resume their Super Rugby campaign, against the Highlanders in Fiji tomorrow night.
With Brodie Retallick sidelined with a pectoral muscle tear he picked up in the team’s final match before the international break – against the Crusaders in Hamilton on June 2 – it is a welcome sight for coach Colin Cooper that Ardron is back from concussion and can slot straight back into the second row in Suva.
More accustomed to a loose forward role, the 27-year-old has ironically only featured there in one of the eight games he has played this year, but has done a quite admirable job shifting into the tight five with a host of injuries hitting the locking stocks.
‘‘I think people kind of undervalue versatility,’’ assistant coach Tabai Matson said. ‘‘In a competition this long, being able to play a couple of positions really well is just a god-send for the team.
‘‘He’s a very good technician [in the lineout], and you’ve seen him on the odd highlight reel, he’s good in the open spaces.’’
With what was his second concussion of the campaign, suffered against the Sharks in Durban last month, Ardron missed the Chiefs’ last two games, and it also kept him from representing Canada during the test window.
Now back, he will have a big task in front of him, against an impressive Highlanders locking combo of Tom Franklin and Jackson Hemopo – both of whom were part of the All Blacks squad in the French series.
The other changes to the Chiefs’ lineup from that Crusaders outing see one All Black in and one out, with cocaptain Sam Cane back after missing the team’s last five games with an abdominal injury but then playing the first two tests against France, and hooker Nathan Harris given paternity leave after the birth of his child.
The backline is unchanged, and despite Damian McKenzie and Anton Lienert-Brown still having an All Blacks stand-down game to take, the Brumbies fixture next weekend shapes as that time.
‘‘This is such an important game in the grand scheme for us, so we’re making sure we have all hands on deck to get our campaign restarted and going in the right direction,’’ Matson said.
After what Matson described as ‘‘a very robust coaching conversation’’, Mitch Karpik’s fine performances in the last two games have seen him retained on the bench, in favour of the Chiefs’ sole Fijian player, Pita Gus Sowakula, who has nonetheless travelled with the squad.
This match is a ‘home’ one for the Highlanders, but the Chiefs are in some familiar surroundings, having taken games against the Crusaders there the past two years. Matson himself is Fijian-born and played two tests for them, while fellow assistant coach Neil Barnes is the country’s forwards coach.
‘‘We feel like they’re supporting us,’’ Matson said of the public feel in Suva.
‘‘I think it’s because of what a great job the Chiefs have done the previous years. There is a lot of Highlanders signage floating around the town but hopefully it’ll be taken down by some Chiefs supporters in the next 48 hours.’’
While the locals are wrapping up in jeans and hoodies in the early 20 degrees temperatures, the conditions are rather vast to those back in New Zealand, but Matson said the Chiefs trainer had done a fine job in preparing the players the past 10 days, creating a ‘heat room’ at their Ruakura base and setting up cardio equipment in there, where they’ve trained in hotter conditions than what they’ve actually faced so far.
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