McKenzie returns for Chiefs as captain Retallick brings up century
The Chiefs will be on the hunt for their first victory of the 2019 Super Rugby season this Saturday at GIO Stadium in Canberra. Head Coach Colin Cooper has named a strong starting fifteen to face the Brumbies which will be led by Chiefs Co-captain Brodie Retallick in his 100th Super Rugby match for the Gallagher Chiefs.
Kicking off at 7.45pm (AST) a near unchanged forward pack will take the field with the exception of Nepo Laulala who will move from the bench into the starting tighthead prop position for All Black Angus Ta’avao who is on leave.
In the backline All Black Damian McKenzie will return from injury to start combining with fellow All Black teammate Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi at halfback for the first time this season. Winger Ataata Moeakiola will take his position on the right wing with Bailyn Sullivan named as cover on the bench.
Joining Sullivan on the bench will be front rower Sosefo Kautai, loose forward Mitch Karpik, halfback cover Jonathan Taumateine and midfield cover Orbyn Leger.
Cooper said this weekend is an opportunity for the side to step up and embrace their learnings from last weekend.
“We have a young team and last week they learnt a lot, this weekend we need them to take on board those learnings and as a team deliver on them.
Cooper finished acknowledging the side will be wanting to deliver a positive performance in honour of their captain’s achievement.
“As a team we want this to be a memorable occasion for Brodie and we want to pull together a performance befitting this milestone on the field come Saturday night,” said Cooper.
CHIEFS
1. Aidan Ross, 2. Nathan Harris, 3. Nepo Laulala, 4. Brodie Retallick (C), 5. Michael Allardice, 6. Mitchell Brown, 7. Lachlan Boshier, 8. Tyler Ardron, 9. Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi, 10. Damian McKenzie, 11. Etene Nanai-Seturo, 12. Anton Lienert-Brown, 13. Tumua Manu, 14. Ataata Moeakiola, 15. Shaun Stevenson.
Reserves: 16. Samisoni Taukei'aho, 17. Tevita Mafileo, 18. Sosefo Kautai, 19. Taleni Seu, 20. Mitchell Karpik, 21. Jonathan Taumateine, 22. Orbyn Leger, 23. Bailyn Sullivan.
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So if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
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