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Aso misses cut after two-try effort
By Online Editors
Hurricanes head coach Chris Boyd admitted there were some tough decisions made before he finalised his side to face the Lions at Westpac Stadium on Saturday night.
Boyd has made four changes to the starting side which beat the Sunwolves 43-15 in the last round 11.
The return of Ngani Laumape after a week's rest has seen the in-form Vince Aso move out of the 23-man squad, a decision Boyd found difficult given just how well the versatile back was playing in 2018.
However, Boyd stressed that Aso would be right back in the mix as the Hurricanes negotiate a difficult few weeks before the international playing window.
Aso finished last weekend's game with 103 run metres, two tries, two try assists and had two more tries disallowed upon further review.
Laumape's return is the only change in the backline, while there are three up front.
Prop Jeff Toomaga-Allen swaps places for Ben May, while in the back row Gareth Evans comes in for Reed Prinsep and Vaea Fifita returns to the second row after a week off.
The only other alteration to the match-day 23 comes in the reserves with Ihaia West coming in for Jackson Garden-Bachop.
Nehe Milner-Skudder, who made a welcome return to rugby in the last quarter of the Sunwolves match, will again come off the bench.
Saturday's match, a repeat of the 2016 Super Rugby final, as well as last year's semifinal, will be significant for centre Matt Proctor who will make his 50th appearance for the Hurricanes.
HURRICANES
15. Jordie Barrett, 14. Julian Savea, 13. Matt Proctor, 12. Ngani Laumape, 11. Ben Lam, 10. Beauden Barrett, 9. Finlay Christie, 8. Gareth Evans, 7. Ardie Savea, 6. Brad Shields (C), 5. Michael Fatialofa, 4. Vaea Fifita, 3. Jeff Toomaga-Allen, 2. Ricky Riccitelli, 1. Toby Smith.
Reserves: 16. James O'Reilly, 17. Chris Eves, 18. Ben May, 19. Sam Lousi, 20. Reed Prinsep, 21. Jamie Booth, 22. Ihaia West, 23. Nehe Milner-Skudder.
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Latest Comments
Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".
But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.
The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.
Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?
Go to commentsI think they just need to judge better when it's on and when it's not. If there is a disjointed chase and WJ has a forward in front of him and some space to work with then he should have a crack every time.
If the chase is perfect and the defence is numbered up then it needs to get sent back. From memory they have not really developed a plan for what to do if they take the ball on/in the 22 with a good chase and no counter attacking opportunity.
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