Injuries no concern as Chiefs name side for pre-season clash with Moana Pasifika
Friday evening’s match between the Chiefs and Moana Pasifika will give Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan a first look at how his squad is tracking ahead of the competition’s February 18 kick-off.
McMillan has named a 33-man squad for the pre-season fixture which will be broadcast on Sky Sport in New Zealand, including two separate XVs who will be spearheaded by Bryn Gatland and Josh Ioane in the No 10 jerseys.
The battle to start at first five in the Chiefs’ opening match of the Super Rugby Pacific season against the Highlanders will come down to which of the two pivots perform bests over the coming two pre-season games, with another option in the form of Kaleb Trask out of action for the early stages of the season after suffering a minor injury at an internal hit-out last week.
All of the Chiefs’ fit players bar their 10 All Blacks will feature in Friday’s clash, which will double as Moana Pasifika’s first-ever game as a Super Rugby franchise.
That means the likes of Samisoni Taukei’aho, Angus Ta’avao, Brodie Retallick, Tupou Vaa’i, Josh Lord, Sam Cane, Luke Jacobson, Brad Weber, Quinn Tupaea and Anton Lienert-Brown won’t see any action for another week after only returning to the squad full-time on Thursday.
The starting team boasts a number of Super Rugby regulars as well as a smattering of wider training squad members.
In the front row, Ollie Norris and Sione Mafileo will pack down alongside former Hurricanes, Blues and Sunwolves hooker Leni Apisai while Northland’s Liam Hallam-Eames gets a run at lock, partnering Laghlan McWhannell.
Blindside flanker Samipeni Finau is the sole full-time Chief in the loose forwards with Mitch Jacobson and Sam McNamara wearing the No 7 and No 8 jerseys, respectively.
Two Hamilton Boys High products will combine in the halves with 20-year-old Cortez Ratima teaming up with 26-year-old Bryn Gatland.
Canterbury’s Rameka Poihipi and Bay of Plenty’s Lalomilo Lalomilo have been named as the starting midfield while Etene Nanai-Seturo, Shaun Stevenson and fullback Rivez Reihana form a strong back three.
A shadow XV has also been named for the second half of the 90-minute fixture, with the likes of regular Chiefs Bradley Slater, Naitoa Ah Kuoi, Pita Gus Sowakula, Xavier Roe, Chase Tiatia, Alex Nankivell and Jonah Lowe all set to feature, as well as new arrivals Ioane and Emoni Narawa.
“We’ve obviously been working hard on a couple of areas of our game on both sides of the ball so we want to see some evidence of things we’ve been trying at training come to fruition in the game,” McMillan said on Thursday. “But also it’d be quite nice to get exposed in a few areas so that we just understand that we’re far from the finished product. [It’s] better to find a little bit more information out about yourself early than in a couple of weeks time.
“[We’re looking for] just a lot of intent, sort of something that the boys can control, go out there with a good mindset and understand that we’re gonna be playing a team that probably wants to have a memorable first performance and on top of them wanting to do well, plenty of motivation to want to put on a good performance knowing that it’s effectively becoming a charity match too for what happened in Tonga.”
McMillan telegraphed last week that loose forward Mitch Brown and prop Rueben O’Neil wouldn’t feature against Moana Pasifika, with the former on the mend from surgery and the latter ruled out for the season, continuing his horror run of bad luck in the injury department.
The other omissions from this Friday’s fixture are Trask, props Atunaisa Moli and Aidan Ross, loose forward Simon Parker and utility back Gideon Wrampling. McMillan suggested that it wouldn’t be long before that group are back on the playing field, however.
“All of them have been training with us,” he said. “Kaleb’s only just picked up an injury out of a sort of internal trial that we had last week that might keep him out for a couple of weeks.
“Gideon had surgery at the end of the year so he’s returning to training and should be back in the first couple of weeks.
“Atu’s taken a full part in training. We’ve just sort of de-loaded him for this week but he’ll play next week. And again, that’s just mindful of the history that he’s had, we don’t want to overload him too early.
“And the other one, Simon Parker, he’s had a bit of a wretched run of injuries. He’s got a little niggly shoulder so again we’ve just taken a conservative route with him.
“None of them have sort of got anything that’s gonna keep them out for any length of time. It’s mostly around just not needing to push them this early in the season.”
Friday’s match kicks off at 7:05pm from Mt Smart Stadium but will be played without a crowd due to New Zealand’s current Covid restrictions.
Chiefs (first half): Rivez Reihana, Shaun Stevenson, Lalomilo Lalomilo, Rameka Poihipi, Etene Nanai-Seturo, Bryn Gatland, Cortez Ratima, Sam McNamara, Mitch Jacobson, Samipeni Finau, Laghlan McWhannell, Liam Hallam-Eames, Sione Mafileo, Leni Apisai, Ollie Norris.
Chiefs (second half): Emoni Narawa, Liam Coombes-Fabling, Alex Nankivell, Chase Tiatia, Jonah Lowe, Josh Ioane, Xavier Roe, Pita Gus Sowakula, Kaylum Boshier, Tom Florence, Hamish Dalzell, Naitoa Ah Kuoi, George Dyer, Bradley Slater, Jarred Proffit.
Additional players: Rob Cobb, Solomone Tukuafu, Tyrone Thompson, Logan Crowley.
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
31 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
4 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
31 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
31 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.
31 Go to comments