Beauden Barrett to make first appearance of 2019
Record Hurricanes points scorer Beauden Barrett will return to the starting XV for Friday’s Super Rugby match against the Brumbies in Palmerston North.
Barrett, who has scored 1120 points in 113 matches for the franchise, has yet to feature in 2019 but will add a wealth of experience and excitement to the squad.
His return is one of seven changes head coach John Plumtree has made to the starting side from last week’s match against the Crusaders.
Vice captain and fellow centurion TJ Perenara returns at half-back after coming off the bench against the Crusaders.
Ngani Laumape will get the opportunity to run out in his home province while Chase Tiatia will make his Hurricanes debut at full-back.
Up front, Ardie Savea returns to the loose forward trio at number eight in place of Gareth Evans who has suffered a calf injury while Vaea Fifita will wear the six jersey.
Fifita’s return follows a strong 50-minute effort for the Hunters in last week’s win over the Crusaders Knights in Christchurch.
The other change in the pack is at tighthead prop where the evergreen Ben May starts with Jeff To’omaga-Allen set to feature off the bench.
Plumtree said: “We want to improve a lot of aspects of our play and hopefully we can do that in front of what will be a great crowd in Palmy.
“We were really impressed with the performance the Brumbies put out last week so we know the scale of task ahead of us but it’s a great challenge for the squad.”
Hurricanes: 15 Chase Tiatia, 14 Vince Aso, 13 Matt Proctor, 12 Ngani Laumape, 11 Ben Lam, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Ardie Savea, 7 Du’Plessis Kirifi, 6 Vaea Fifita, 5 Liam Mitchell, 4 James Blackwell, 3 Ben May, 2 Dane Coles (c), 1 Chris Eves
Replacements: 16 Ricky Riccitelli, 17 Xavier Numia, 18 Jeff To’omaga-Allen, 19 Isaia Walker-Leawere, 20 Reed Prinsep, 21 Richard Judd, 22 Jackson Garden-Bachop, 23 Wes Goosen
Date: Friday, March 1
Venue: Central Energy Trust Arena, Palmerston North
Kick-off: 19:35 local (06:35 GMT)
Referee: Nick Briant (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Federico Anselmi (Argentina), Nick Hogan (New Zealand)
TMO: Aaron Paterson (New Zealand)