Crusaders boss Todd Blackadder has named his side to take on the Hurricanes in Saturday's first pre-season match at Timaru.
Blackadder has opted to leave several experienced players on the replacements bench while seven players - Joe Moody, Codie Taylor, Dominic Bird, Shane Christie, Jordan Taufua, Jeremy Su'a and Kieran Fonotia - will make their run-on debuts for the Christchurch-based franchise.
The team will be captained by flanker George Whitelock.
Crusaders: 15 Tom Marshall, 14 James Schrader, 13 Kieran Fonotia, 12 Robbie Fruen, 11 Shayne Anderson, 10 Tyler Blyendaal, 9 Jeremy Su'a, 8 Jordan Taufua, 7 Shane Christie, 6 George Whitelock (c), 5 Joel Everson, 4 Dominic Bird, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Joe Moody.
Replacements: 16 Paea Fa'anunu, 17 Adrian Barone, 18 Mitch Graham, 19 Ben Funnell, 20 Jimmy Tupou, 21 Matt Simons, 22 Luke Whitelock, 23 Matt Todd, 24 Andy Ellis, 25 Tyrone Elkington, 26 Kolio Hifo, 27 Stephen Burt.
Comments
side_stepper says...
Wow at least 10 new names in the run-on tea and only 1 current All Black in the match day 27.
Now I'm convinced that NZ has a factory that creates rugby players?
Posted 18:21 31st January 2013