Blues change one for Bulls
The Blues have made just one change to their starting line-up for Friday’s clash with the Bulls in Albany.
All Black Charlie Faumuina is named in the front row in his expected return from injury, although it will be dependent on how he recovers from Thursday’s final training session. He has been bracketed with North Harbour’s Sione Mafileo.
The rest of the starting team is unchanged from last week’s match against the Crusaders.
Head coach Tana Umaga said while the team let a winning lead slip late in the game, there were plenty of positives last week.
“We wanted clear progress from the week before in terms of our lineout and our error rate. We got that. The lineout was excellent, we had a stable platform, and we had much less handling mistakes,” Umaga said.
“As a result, off the back of a stable platform we were strong in the first half with three excellent tries. Overall our defence was quite good, but in the second half we could not find a way to stop the rolling maul. We did not help ourselves with a number of penalties which allowed the Crusaders to be a constant threat inside our red zone.
“We are looking for further progress this week – and every week.”
Blake Gibson will play his 18th game for the Blues, moving closer to his Blazer games, while All Black Ofa Tu’ungafasi, who will again come off the bench on Saturday, edges to within three games of his 50th cap for the Blues.
Blues: 15 Michael Collins, 14 Matt Duffie, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 George Moala, 11 Melani Nanai, 10 Piers Francis, 9 Augustine Pulu, 8 Jerome Kaino, 7 Blake Gibson, 6 Jimmy Tupou, 5 Patrick Tuipulotu, 4 Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, 3 Charlie Faumuina/Sione Mafileo, 2 James Parsons (c), 1 Pauliasi Manu
Replacements: 16 Matt Moulds, 17 Ofa Tu’ungafasi/Sam Prattley, 18 Sione Mafileo or Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 19 Akira Ioane, 20 Murphy Taramai, 21 Sam Nock, 22 Ihaia West, 23 TJ Faiane
Date: Saturday, March 25
Venue: QBE Stadium, North Harbour
Kick-off: 19:35 local (06:35 GMT)
Referee: Nic Berry (Australia)
Assistant Referees: William Houston (Australia), Nick Briant (New Zealand)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)