A surprised Clark Laidlaw reacts to report claiming Fehi's Newcastle deal is off

Hurricanes head coach Clark Laidlaw was surprised when told at Friday night’s postgame press conference about a report claiming star winger Fehi Fineanganofo’s move to Newcastle had been called off.

Podcaster Andy Rowe told Sport Nation on Friday that his sources in Newcastle were “very, very upset” and suggested New Zealand Rugby had intervened. However, the original report was updated on Saturday morning to note that New Zealand Rugby had denied the claim.

Following his side’s 47-14 defeat in Christchurch on Friday night, Laidlaw was asked if he had any knowledge of the situation. The coach shook his head and said it was news to him.

“We’ve made no secret that we’d love him to be here. But, I genuinely haven’t heard anything along those lines,” Laidlaw said.

The coach has consistently expressed a desire to keep Fineanganofo in Wellington, while New Zealand Rugby has shut down talk of them negotiating a buy-out with Newcastle.

Fineanganofo was absent from the Hurricanes’ last match of the regular season, managing a hamstring issue that was originally misdiagnosed as season-ending. The updated recovery timeline will still see Fineanganofo miss next week’s qualifying final but leaves the door open for a return in the semi-final or — should the Canes qualify — the final.

The winger is sitting on a record-equalling 16-try haul for the season, so would break the single-season record with one more five-pointer. He also leads the competition for linebreaks with 21 in 12 games.

Siale Lauaki and Jordie Barrett also missed the Crusaders match with injuries, each listed with a one-week recovery timeline, and Laidlaw says they are on track to be available for the first round of the playoffs. The same can’t be said for Devan Flanders, while the status of Du’Plessis Kirifi and Isaia Walker-Leawere remains uncertain.

“The majority of players will be available for next week; Fehi’s not available, Devan’s not available, Dupes could potentially play, he’s got a pretty dinged-up shoulder but has made really good progress,” Laidlaw explained. “The rest should be available. Izzy picked up a bit of a cheek injury, so he’s going to get that X-rayed.”

The Canes enter the knockout stages with first dibs on the lucky-loser spot in the qualifying final, meaning they are guaranteed to make the semi-finals. Losing would, however, see them drop to the lowest seed in the playoffs, surrendering home-field advantage.

“We’ve worked way too hard since January to get a home playoff; we don’t want to give that up if we can help it,” the coach said.