A BACKLINE THAT CAN DO EVERYTHING
The whole backline’s pretty spectacular and the loose forwards aren’t bad too either.
Let’s start with the backs. TJ Perenara and Beauden Barrett are as elite a halves combination as you’ll find. Outside them, Ngani Laumape, Matt Proctor and Vince Aso will jockey for midfield positions alongside the highly-regarded Billy Proctor and reliable Wes Goosen.
Then you come to the back-three and Jordie Barrett, James Marshall, Ben Lam, Nehe Milner-Skudder and new boy Salesi Rayasi. If a coach can’t do something with talent like that, then they’re in the wrong caper.
Importantly, these are guys who all get on, work hard and won’t play up if they’re not in the starting XV every week.
The loosies will be interesting too. Ardie Savea’s sure to start on the openside, then there’s Vaea Fifita, Gareth Evans, Heiden Bedwell-Curtis and Reed Prinsep to find regular minutes for. Bedwell-Curtis has the grunt the Hurricanes need to replace Shields, while Evans is versatile and atheltic.
The wildcard is Fifita, who’s had to battle away at lock during his Hurricanes career. Ideally Fifita would play at six, where he’s a legitimate All Blacks candidate, but given how thin the Hurricanes are at lock you wonder whether he might spend more time in the second row.
Plumtree wants a worker, rather than a seagull, at blindside flanker so Fifita will have to roll his sleeves up if he wants to stay on the side of the scrum.