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Brad Shields brings up Super century
By Online Editors
Hurricanes captain Brad Shields will return to the starting lineup for his 100th Super Rugby match against the Blues at Westpac Stadium on Saturday night.
Shields became the 14th member of the Hurricanes centurions club when he played against the Highlanders last month having played 99 Super Rugby matches and the dramatic draw against The British and Irish Lions in 2017.
The much-respected Shields joins Tana Umaga, Rodney So'oialo, Ma'a Nonu, Andrew Hore, Neemia Tialata, Conrad Smith, Jeremy Thrush, Cory Jane, Victor Vito, Julian Savea, Dane Coles, Beauden Barrett and TJ Perenara to have played 100 matches for the club.
Shields missed last week's match against the Brumbies after he returned from South Africa following his test debut for England.
His return is one of six changes Hurricanes head coach Chris Boyd has made to the starting side from the line-up that lost to the Brumbies.
First five-eighth Beauden Barrett, who fulfilled the second of his All Black stand-down matches last week, returns while his brother Jordie moves from centre to fullback with Wes Goosen promoted to the No 13 jersey.
There is also a couple of positional changes with Julian Savea moving from the right to the left wing while Nehe Milner-Skudder moves from fullback to the right wing.
Boyd has also made four changes to the pack where lock Vaea Fifita and prop Ben May return along with Shields while the experienced Blade Thomson moves from the reserves into the starting XV.
Boyd said there was no shortage of motivation for the squad as they look to mark Shields' milestone in the right fashion while they were also desperate to maintain their proud home record and push for a quarterfinal to be played in front of their own fans at Westpac Stadium.
The Hurricanes have won their last six matches against the Blues, their best winning sequence against a New Zealand side.
HURRICANES
15. Jordie Barrett, 14. Nehe Milner-Skudder, 13. Wes Goosen, 12. Ngani Laumape, 11. Julian Savea, 10. Beauden Barrett, 9. TJ Perenara, 8. Blade Thomson, 7. Sam Henwood, 6. Brad Shields (C), 5. Sam Lousi, 4. Vaea Fifita, 3. Ben May, 2. Ricky Riccitelli, 1. Toby Smith.
Reserves: 16. James O'Reilly, 17. Fraser Armstrong, 18. Jeff Toomaga-Allen, 19. Michael Fatialofa, 20. Gareth Evans, 21. Jamie Booth, 22. Ihaia West, 23. Ben Lam.
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Latest Comments
Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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