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Akira Ioane to miss Blues' 'challenge' against the Brumbies
By Finn Morton
The Blues will be without star flanker Akira Ioane will then run out to Melbourne’s AAMI Park to take on the Brumbies in a highly anticipated semi-final rematch on Sunday afternoon.
Ioane will miss the round two clash after injuring his knee in last Saturday’s 60-20 win over the Highlanders at Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium.
The Blues will take on Australian heavyweights the Brumbies at 4:00pm NZT, in the final match of the Super Round weekend.
All 12 Super Rugby Pacific teams will play out of the same venue at Melbourne’s AAMI Park over three nights, starting with the Crusaders versus the Highlanders on Friday.
The Brumbies will undoubtedly be hungry for revenge following tehri thrilling loss in last year’s semi-final at Eden Park.
Blues captain Dalton Papali’i is confident that his team are well prepared “to meet that challenge” against the Brumbies.
“You can’t stand still in this competition, otherwise teams will run straight past you,” Papali’i said in a statement.
“We know the Brumbies will bring a physical, confronting game and we have been preparing all week to meet that challenge.”
The Blues have made four changes to their starting XV ahead of the round two clash, and they’re all in the forward pack.
Blues coach Leon MacDonald has selected a new-look front row of Joshua Fusitu’a, Ricky Riccitelli and James Lay.
“All three front rowers deserve their starts this week which double as an opportunity to put their hand up in a hotly contested area of the park for us,” MacDonald said.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how this front row gel on Sunday.”
As for the second-row, last week’s partnership of Patrick Tuipulotu and Cameron Suafoa have been named in the starting side once again.
Fan favourite Tom Robinson has been named for his Super Rugby Pacific return, although he has been bracketed alongside flanker Adria Choat.
Either Robinson or Choat will replace the injured Ioane in the No. 6 jersey.
“You never want to see players get injured and it’s an unfortunate blow for Akira this early in the season, but he’s working with our medical staff on a rehab program to get him back and fit,” MacDonald added.
“It’s great to have several options at loose forward and we’ll make a call on Tom and Adrian closer to Sunday with both players making the trip to Melbourne.”
The backline remains unchanged, with Finlay Christie and Beauden Barrett set to take the playmaking reins once again the halves.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Rieko Ioane will start in the midfield once again, the outside backs will also look to repeat last weekend’s heroics – especially Mark Telea.
Blues team to take on the Brumbies:
- Joshua Fusitu’a
- Ricky Riccitelli
- James Lay
- Patrick Tuipulotu
- Cameron Suafoa
- Tom Robinson (Adrian Choat)
- Dalton Papali’i
- Hoskins Sotutu
- Finlay Christie
- Beauden Barrett
- Caleb Clarke
- Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
- Rieko Ioane
- Mark Telea
- Stephen Perofeta
Replacements:
- Kurt Eklund
- Ofa Tu’ungafasi
- Marcel Renata
- James Tucker
- Adrian Choat (Anton Segner)
- Taufa Funaki
- Bryce Heem
- Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens
Unavailable: Sam Darry (knee), Akira Ioane (knee), AJ Lam (illness), Sam Nock (calf), Harry Plummer (ribs)
-Press release/Blues
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Latest Comments
The only benefit of the draft idea is league competitiveness. There would be absolutely no commercial value in a draft with rugby’s current interest levels.
I wonder what came first in america? I’m assuming it’s commercial aspect just built overtime and was a side effect essentially.
But the idea is not without merit as a goal. The first step towards being able to implement a draft being be creating it’s source of draftees. Where would you have the players come from? NFL uses college, and players of an age around 22 are generally able to step straight into the NFL. Baseball uses School and kids (obviously nowhere near pro level being 3/4 years younger) are sent to minor league clubs for a few years, the equivalent of the Super Rugby academies. I don’t think the latter is possible legally, and probably the most unethical and pointless, so do we create a University scene that builds on and up from the School scene? There is a lot of merit in that and it would tie in much better with our future partners in Japan and America.
Can we used the club scene and dispose of the Super Rugby academies? The benefit of this is that players have no association to their Super side, ie theyre not being drafted elshwere after spending time as a Blues or Chiefs player etc, it removes the negative of investing in a player just to benefit another club. The disadvantage of course is that now the players have nowhere near the quality of coaching and each countries U20s results will suffer (supposedly).
Or are we just doing something really dirty and making a rule that the only players under the age of 22 (that can sign a pro contract..) that a Super side can contract are those that come from the draft? Any player wanting to upgrade from an academy to full contract has to opt into the draft?
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You’ve got the perfect structure to run your 1A and 1B on a quota of club representation by Province. Have some balance/reward system in place to promote and reward competitiveness/excellence. Say each bracket has 12 teams, each province 3 spots, given the Irish Shield winner once of the bottom ranked provinces spots, so the twelve teams that make up 1A are 4 from Leinster, 3 each from Connacht and Munster, and 2 from Ulster etc. Run the same rule over 1B from the 1A reults/winner/bottom team etc. I’d imagine IRFU would want to keep participation to at least two teams from any one province but if not, and there was reason for more flexibility and competitveness, you can simply have other ways to change the numbers, like caps won by each province for the year prior or something.
Then give those clubs sides much bigger incentive to up their game, say instead of using the Pro sides for the British and Irish Cup you had going, it’s these best club sides that get to represent Ireland. There is plenty of interest in semi pro club cup competitions in europe that Ireland can invest in or drive their own creation of.
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