Love out of Rebels match
Hurricanes first five-eighth Ruben Love will miss Friday’s match against the Rebels in Wellington, but has avoided serious injury after frightening scenes at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Coach Jason Holland said the 20-year-old rising star would be sidelined for a week after suffering concussion when taking a heavy knock in the second minute of Friday’s remarkable 64-48 victory over the Waratahs in Super Rugby Trans-Tasman.
Fears of a spinal injury were allayed, after the match was held up for 10 minutes while Love was attended to on the turf. His attempted tackle on Waratahs flanker Charlie Gamble went awry and his head contacted his opponent’s hip.
Love was stretchered off on a medicab and taken by ambulance to hospital, where he was cleared of any structural damage.
‘‘All the scans were clear and he was back at the hotel before we were, after the game. But it’s a concussion that will rule him out for next week,’’ Holland said yesterday.
‘‘I’d expect it to only be a week, unless he has any complications getting through the [concussion] protocols.’’
It means Orbyn Leger will likely return to the No10 jersey which Love wore for the last four matches, with new signing Aidan Morgan the backup option. Leger was good off the bench as the match opened up spectacularly and the Hurricanes rattled up 10 tries against some leaky Tahs defence to seal their hosts’ ninth straight loss.
Holland confirmed Francebound Ngani Laumape, who sat out the Sydney trip on a prearranged rest weekend, would return at Sky Stadium against the Rebels who were hammered 50-3 by the Blues on Saturday.
Despite making excellent progress from a knee injury, captain Ardie Savea was ‘‘zero chance’’ of returning earlier than scheduled on Friday, Holland said.
Bench prop Tevita Mafileo was the other doubtful starter with a knee injury, after he was hit late and high during a Hurricanes try movement.
Holland and his team returned to the capital on Saturday with mixed feelings from their first overseas trip since February 2020. They banked the maximum five points but only just, after the Tahs scored seven tries of their own in what the Hurricanes described as a strange game to play in.
‘‘Some of the ways we let in soft points, it was pretty average around our D [defence]. Our D was one of our strongest points during the [Aotearoa] season when we were struggling a bit for results, holding New Zealand teams to 20 points. Against the Landers [a 41-22 win] it was a really good defensive effort,’’ Holland said.
‘‘We weren’t happy with the way we conceded points. We had only eight line breaks against us, but they scored seven tries, which was an interesting stat. There’s structural things with the D, and there’s intent and doing things that are our habits around line speed. That’s a big focus this week.’’
New Zealand sides swept the first of five rounds, with three clear margins and two tense finishes as the Crusaders [over the Brumbies] and Chiefs [over the Force] snuck home.
The Blues got the early jump on points differential, which will be used to split teams tied on the same number of wins and competition points if needed for the one versus two final.
Holland said of the Rebels: ‘‘I sat up and watched it, and it was a pretty close game until the last 20 minutes. They’re a good solid pack who had the Blues under the pump, apart from they battled a bit at scrum time. Big Karl [Tu’inukuafe] did a job on their tighthead.
‘‘They’ve got some pretty solid players and the Blues went over the top of them in the last 20. Nothing is going to be easy. We’ve got to win the game first and perform and that’s our focus, that we don’t just do good stuff with the ball, we do it without it too.’’