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Ioane brothers ruled out for Blues as side named for Brumbies
The Blues face one of their toughest tests when they travel to Canberra to take on the Brumbies in the penultimate regular-season clash in the DHL Super Rugby Pacific competition on Saturday.
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Coach Leon MacDonald has named a predictably strong line-up led by an experienced pack to take on Australia’s leading team. While a win in Canberra will assure the Blues of top spot in the competition, it is far from MacDonald’s mind.
“We have been taking things one game at a time and not getting ahead of ourselves. This is one of the absolute key tests for us this season and we are ready for a real dog-fight,” said MacDonald.
“The Brumbies have only lost twice all year and with one of those last weekend, we know they will come with all they have on Saturday.
“We are absolutely looking forward to the confrontation. They have strength across the park and we will need to match them. The team have prepared well and now have to execute both individually and as a team, and show real discipline because the Brumbies will take full toll if they can earn opportunity in our territory.
The Blues have power upfront with All Blacks Ofa Tuungafasi and Alex Hodgman at prop, and with a further two international frontrowers to come off the bench in Karl Tu’inukuafe and Nepo Laulala.
They have bolstered their line-up with the return of Sam Darry to partner the in-form and hard-working James Tucker, who played for the Brumbies last season.
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Exciting rookie Anton Segner comes on to the blindside flank with injuries to Akira Ioane and Tom Robinson, to form a potent backrow with captain Dalton Papalii and fellow All Black Hoskins Sotutu.
The backline is unchanged aside from the injured Rieko Ioane, with Bryce Heem, so influential this season, coming in for his seventh start.
The competition’s leading points scorer Stephen Perofeta, sitting on 99 points for the season, again starts at fullback and will look to continue his exciting combination with halfback Finlay Christie and first-five Beauden Barrett.
The match kicks off at 9.45pm NZ time, in what will be a busy day in the Australian capital on election day.
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The Blues team to play the Brumbies in Canberra:
1. Alex Hodgman (51 Blues caps)
2. Kurt Eklund (34)
3. Ofa Tuungafasi (117)
4. James Tucker (9)
5. Sam Darry (14)
6. Anton Segner (5)
7. Dalton Papalii© (54)
8. Hoskins Sotutu (33)
9. Finlay Christie (27)
10. Beauden Barrett (14)
11. Caleb Clark (35)
12. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (8)
13. Bryce Heem (17)
14. Mark Telea (35)
15. Stephen Perofeta (41)
Reserves
16. Ricky Riccitelli (8)
17. Karl Tu’inukuafe (38)
18. Nepo Laulala (21)
19. Luke Romano (10)
20. Adrian Choat (16)
21. Sam Nock (48)
22. Tanielu Tele’a (20)
23. Zarn Sullivan (15)
Players not considered: Harry Plummer, Josh Goodhue, Rieko Ioane, Akira Ioane, Tom Robinson.
-Press Release/Blues
Comments on RugbyPass
Omg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
127 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
127 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
127 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
127 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
127 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
127 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
127 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
127 Go to commentsHo hum.
127 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
127 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
127 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
127 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
127 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
127 Go to commentsBen, nobody gets fooled anymore by selective and biased data to support an hypothesis. Games are decided on such small margins these days that you win some and lose some, and dominance is a thing of the rugby past. Look at the RWC circle of fortune…. Ireland beats SA who beat France who beat NZ who beat Ireland. And so it goes on. Match officials help to eliminate real indiscretions. If they had been with us years before, no doubt results would have been different. Remember Andy Haden’s dive from a lineout in 1978 for which a match-wining penalty was awarded? Wales should have beaten the ABs that day. They took the loss like the gentlemen they were.
127 Go to commentsWith all the analysis and how good the all blacks were.The fundamental mistake with the ABs is that this is a test match and not an exhibition.There is no better team(country) in world rugby than the Boks that knows how to win a test match(we are post masters at this).We know our rules, we have the discipline, we tackle like beasts, we take our points and we never give up.I now have educated the ABs supporters(at least say thank you).Please stop “bitching” , accept what the outcome is and move along swiftly.
127 Go to commentsAnd they came from behind to win two big games before the final. No one can say what would have happened. Had the boks gone behind the game plan changes and the result may changes. Ifs and ands are irrelevant. The boks won. Neutral critics enjoyed the games they played. Its not a popularity contest. Get over it and move on.
127 Go to comments