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Hurricanes welcome back World Cup stars for season-opening Super Rugby tour
The Hurricanes have named a squad of 27 players to travel to South Africa and Argentina for the start of the 2020 Super Rugby campaign.
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Headlining the abbreviated squad to take on the Stormers in Cape Town and Jaguares in Buenos Aires over the next fortnight are All Blacks stars TJ Perenara and Jordie Barrett.
Neither player has featured throughout pre-season as part of their extended break following last year’s World Cup in Japan.
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The duo – who were present at Onewa Domain for the Hurricanes’ 29-28 defeat to the Blues in Auckland on Friday – will be confined to just 40 and then 60 minutes of game time in the season’s opening two matches as part of the All Blacks’ rest program.
Their returns will nevertheless be welcomed by head coach Jason Holland, whose side will need Perenara’s and Barrett’s talents and experience after the Wellingtonians lost both of their pre-season fixtures to the Blues and Crusaders.
Perenara’s fellow co-captain Dane Coles hasn’t travelled with the squad, with hopes he’ll play in the round three clash against the Sharks at Sky Stadium on February 15.
The Hurricanes’ only other Kiwi World Cup representative, Ardie Savea, remains sidelined as he recovers from knee surgery which took place at the end of last year.
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He's learnt how to lead by watching Michael Hooper, now one of Australia's most promising youngsters is gunning for his @wallabies spot.https://t.co/RSxk5GDZaJ
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 24, 2020
Despite the absence of Coles and Savea, the Hurricanes will still have plenty of players with All Blacks experience at their disposal through the likes of Ngani Laumape, Vaea Fifita, Asafo Aumua, Tyrel Lomax and Gareth Evans.
The race to replace departed star Beauden Barrett has been narrowed down to specialist first-fives Fletcher Smith and Jackson Garden-Bachop, both of whom have been named to travel, unlike experienced playmaker James Marshall.
Additionally, second rower James Blackwell has also been included, even though he was seen sporting a moonboot in the wake of Friday’s loss to the Blues.
Holland has called upon a new name from outside of the original 38-man squad he named two months ago, with former Chiefs prop Tevita Mafileo, who has been training with the Blues over pre-season, drafted into the side.
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The 21-year-old is part of a five-man prop contingent that excludes full squad members Ben May and Xavier Numia, and he could join Super Rugby rookies Pouri Rakete-Stones and Devan Flanders in making his Hurricanes debut next Saturday when they face a strong Stormers outfit at Newlands.
The Cape Town-based club have a plethora of World Cup-winning Springboks in their ranks, including South African skipper Siya Kolisi and reigning World Rugby player of the year Pieter-Steph du Toit.
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Other members of the world champion Springboks squad plying their trade for the Stormers are Bongi Mbonambi, Steven Kitshoff, Herschel Jantjies and Damian Willemse, while veteran Wales and British and Irish Lions midfielder Jamie Roberts has also been recruited.
Subsequently, Holland is expecting a tough encounter to open the new campaign.
“As always, you can expect the game is going to be extremely physical,” he said.
“We know they will have a certain confidence this year too – but we’ve got a good side who have taken lessons from pre-season and are ready for what’s to come.”
The Hurricanes will travel to Argentina following their bout with the Stormers in preparation for their round two meeting with the Jaguares at Estadio Jose Amalfitani on February 8.
Hurricanes squad to face the Stormers and Jaguares
Forwards:
Fraser Armstrong, Tyrel Lomax, Tevita Mafileo, Pouri Rakete-Stones, Alex Fidow, Ricky Riccitelli, Asafo Aumua, James Blackwell, Isaia Walker-Leawere, Scott Scrafton, Du’Plessis Kirifi, Gareth Evans, Vaea Fifita, Devan Flanders, Reed Prinsep.
Backs:
TJ Perenara, Jamie Booth, Jackson Garden-Bachop, Fletcher Smith, Ngani Laumape, Billy Proctor, Vince Aso, Peter Umaga-Jensen, Wes Goosen, Ben Lam, Chase Tiatia, Jordie Barrett.
In other news:
Comments on RugbyPass
late 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
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 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.
24 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.
24 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?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments