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Hurricanes reveal whether Jordie Barrett will play at No 10 in the wake of injury crisis
The Hurricanes have revealed star utility back Jordie Barrett will not play at first-five this week despite the franchise’s shortage in the position.
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Speaking to media, Hurricanes defence coach Cory Jane said it would be “unfair” to thrust Barrett into the playmaking role to replace injured pair Jackson Garden-Bachop and Simon Hickey.
The latter has been ruled out for the season after he ruptured his ACL, while the former is in doubt to play against the Chiefs in Wellington this weekend due to an achilles niggle.
Both players are the only bona fide first-fives in the Hurricanes squad, leaving the franchise short on options to fill the No 10 jersey on Saturday.
Barrett, who can cover every backline position bar halfback, filled the first-five role during the second half of his side’s defeat to the Crusaders a fortnight ago and started at No 10 for the All Blacks in their 2019 World Cup clash against Namibia.
However, Jane ruled the 24-year-old of the first-five equation.
“It wouldn’t be fair on him if we actually put him into first-five, last year he was the best fullback running around and he’s done some good stuff for us already this year,” Jane said.
“To put him there just because we feel like we need to would probably be unfair on him, I like him better at fullback and we’ll just have to make do with the options we’ve got.”
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Instead, the Hurricanes will rely on some of their younger, less experienced players to step up in the absence of Garden-Bachop and Hickey.
Former Blues and Chiefs five-eighth Orbyn Leger stands as the frontrunner to start as the side’s pivot due to his previous Super Rugby experience.
The 24-year-old, a former New Zealand and Samoa U20 representative who featured for the Hurricanes during pre-season and has played for the franchise’s reserve side – the Hunters – in recent weeks, has competition for the pivot role, though.
Hurricanes U20 first-five Aidan Morgan could also in contention for selection, as could his 2019 New Zealand Schools teammate Ruben Love.
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Blues star Rieko Ioane is beginning to state his case to claim the All Blacks' No 13 jersey after an impressive start to Super Rugby Aotearoa. #SuperRugbyAotearoa https://t.co/qsT9Pp1mvV
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 16, 2021
Morgan and Love, both of whom are uncapped at Super Rugby level, shared the fullback role for the Hurricanes Hunters in their matches against the Hurricanes Regional XV and Crusaders Knights over the past few weeks.
Leger, meanwhile, started at first-five and was vice-captain in both of those matches, but Jane refused to be drawn into which players were in the running to don the No 10 jersey for the senior side this weekend.
“We’ve got a couple of young guys coming in they’re our secret weapons, I can’t let that out of the bag at the moment.”
In other injury news, All Blacks hookers Asafo Aumua (shoulder) and Dane Coles (calf) are both expected to be available for the Chiefs match after working through their respective injuries.
“I think Colesy is just itching at the bit to get out there, he ran really well with us in training last week,” Jane said.
“Asafo is a tough lad too. By the sounds of it everything is sweet with him he’s just a bit sore so ideally he’s back.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments