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'It's going to be fun': Peter Umaga-Jensen on facing Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii
By Ned Lester
The Hurricanes face a mighty challenge this weekend as they look to continue their return to winning ways, having beaten the Highlanders in their last outing before a bye week.
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The Waratahs, sitting at fourth on the Super Rugby table with one loss from five games, are next on the Canes’ hitlist and will receive a superstar boost for the contest.
Jospeh Aukuso Suaalii is set to make his return from injury in the round seven clash, and has been named in the No. 13 jersey – his first taste of the midfield in Super Rugby.
He’ll line up opposite one-time All Black Peter Umaga-Jensen, who is usually deployed at inside centre but has switched places with Bailyn Sullivan for this game.
The pair make an astute defensive partnership, but are bound to be tested by the superstar 21-year-old and Joey Walton, who has been given the Waratahs captaincy for Friday evening.
“I’d just be excited to see him actually, to meet him in person and see what he’s like. He’s a big boy,” Umaga-Jensen told SportNation before show host and former All Black Israel Dagg interjected with a playful “meet him with the shoulders?”, to which Umaga-Jensen replied “hopefully. If I can reach him, he’ll probably get to me first.
“It’s going to be fun, it’ll be cool to see how he plays and get a feel for what he does. I know he hasn’t had that much experience with rugby, but what he has done, he’s already played Test rugby and one game of Super, so hopefully, our experience helps us in that regard, and then maybe his talent will do a lot for his side.
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“But it’s just exciting, really; it’ll be cool.”
The Hurricanes have just two wins from their five games this season, though all five contests have been decided by fewer than 10 points.
Umaga-Jensen shared his assessment of his side’s start to the 2025 campaign.
“We’re just finding our groove; it’s taken a couple of games to get there, but our last game, against the Highlanders, saw our effort on the defensive side, and I guess our attack didn’t really do much, but there’s just a learning for us and we’ve got young players in those big spots with our game drivers.
“I think it’s just slowly coming together with the trainings that we’ve had over the past week.”
An improved defensive performance was key to the most recent win in Dunedin, with assistant coach and former All Black Cory Jane leading the team in that area.
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“He just had a couple of words. He’s got his game model with his defence, and he just said overall, you’ve got to initiate contact and you’ve got to want to tackle. I think he just saw how hungry we were and our urgency and how calm we were.
“We wanted to do that for him… It was good knowing that we can back our defence.”
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