Chiefs keeping powder dry
The Chiefs are keeping plenty of powder dry ahead of next weekend’s Super Rugby quarterfinal, with a bit of reshuffling the order of the day for their final-round match against the Hurricanes in Hamilton tomorrow night.
As signposted on Monday, cocaptain and openside flanker Sam Cane will sit out as a precautionary measure following his concussion suffered against the Brumbies last Saturday, joining Damian McKenzie on the sidelines, with the first fiveeighth serving his second and final All Blacks stand-down match.
Cane had passed his HIA test on the night but wasn’t thrust back into action, then hadn’t presented at 100 per cent this week, so the decision was made to rest him up ahead of the quarterfinal – almost certainly to also be against the Hurricanes.
Utility back Sean Wainui (shoulder) and hooker Nathan Harris (thigh) will also miss Friday due to not fully overcoming injuries picked up against the Brumbies, while impressive young loose forward Luke Jacobson has been rested, and All Blacks prop Karl Tu’inukuafe and veteran loosie Liam Messam will play from the bench.
Offsetting the absences is the welcoming back from injury of lock Brodie Retallick, and the return of midfielder Anton Lienert-Brown, who completed his All Blacks rest requirements last weekend.
Retallick missed the Chiefs’ last two games and New Zealand’s test series against France after suffering a fractured coracoid process against the Crusaders in Hamilton on June 2. He takes Michael Allardice’s place in a very new-look pack.
Sam Prattley gets his first start of the season in replacing Tu’inukuafe, Liam Polwart takes Harris’ place, Mitch Karpik gets the nod for Cane’s No 7 jersey, with Lachlan Boshier and Jesse Parete promoted from bench roles to be at blindside and No 8 respectively.
Assistant coach Tabai Matson said the idea of starting Prattley was to reward his endeavours so far – eight straight appearances off the bench – while not giving Messam a start in what’s likely his last game in Hamilton was because they liked the experience he would bring later in the match.
In the backline, McKenzie is replaced by brother Marty, with Tiaan Falcon into the reserves, while Lienert-Brown takes back his spot at centre, after Wainui came off the wing and played there last weekend.
While the Chiefs still have a chance of finishing second in the Kiwi conference and earning hosting rights for their quarterfinal by being the topranked wildcard side, they would need to beat the Hurricanes with a bonus point and a winning margin of at least 23.
However, Matson said they wouldn’t be going into the game with that specific mindset.
‘‘I think this will be like all the derbies in New Zealand, it will be an absolute slugfest, and both teams will be arm-wrestling for a long period just to get a slight upper-hand,’’ he said.
‘‘If we get close to being more than 10 points in front, we may consider the home quarterfinal focus. But for us, we just want to go out there and start really well.’’
Matson acknowledged both teams would certainly be holding things back in preparation of facing one another again next weekend, and the scenario did indeed create some intrigue.
‘‘It is definitely weird,’’ he said. ‘‘Clearly the quarterfinal is the most important game of the year, but we will be firing as many shots as we can to create momentum going into that.
‘‘Every team wants to be in the playoffs so as soon as that’s been guaranteed you can start planning for the most important stage of the year. For us, the best preparation for tomorrow is to do today’s work extraordinarily well. Having a really good training week and putting the Hurricanes under immense pressure means we can roll into the quarterfinal really confident.’’ Chiefs: Solomon Alaimalo, Toni Pulu, Anton Lienert-Brown, Charlie Ngatai (c), Shaun Stevenson, Marty McKenzie, Brad Weber, Jesse Parete, Mitch Karpik, Lachlan Boshier, Tyler Ardron, Brodie Retallick, Angus Ta’avao, Liam Polwart, Sam Prattley. Reserves: Samisoni Taukei’aho, Karl Tu’inukuafe, Jeff Thwaites, Michael Allardice, Liam Messam, Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi, Tiaan Falcon, Johnny Fa’auli.