Carter starts in Reds trial
All Black legend Dan Carter completes his comeback from an off-season calg strain when he starts at flyhalf in the pre-season friendly against the Reds in Brisbane on Friday.
All Blacks Owen Franks and Colin Slade also join the line-up for the first time this pre-season.
Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder said that, like the other warm-up games against the Highlanders and Hurricanes, he would be treating this as an opportunity to trial some combinations ahead of the season – which stars when the seven-time champions host the Rebels in Christchurch on February 13.
"These games have been a great opportunity for some of the newer players in the training squad in particular to get some game practice, and for players who may not have played in the same team previously to get used to playing together," Blackadder said.
"We're starting to get a good feel for which combinations are firing and where we need more work.
We were really pleased with what we saw in the last quarter of our last game, so we'll be looking to step it up from there this week," Blackadder added.
Crusaders: 15 Colin Slade, 14 Robbie Fruean, 13 Kieron Fonotia, 12 Tom Taylor, 11 Johnny McNicholl, 10 Daniel Carter, 9 Mitchell Drummond, 8 Luke Whitelock, 7 Matt Todd (captain), 6 Jimmy Tupou, 5 Dominic Bird, 4 Luke Romano, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Alex Hodgman.
Replacements – from: Ben Funnell, Ged Robinson, Joe Moody, Daniel Lienert-Brown, Scott Barrett, Tom Sanders, Billy Guyton, Nathaniel Apa, Nafi Tuitavaki, David Havili.
Date: Friday, February 6
Venue: Ballymore Stadium, Brisbane
Kick-off: 19.30 AEST (20.30 AEDT; 09.30 GMT; 22.30 NZ time)
Referee: Steve Walsh (Australia)
Assistant referees: Rohan Hoffmann (Australia), Damien Mitchelmore (Australia)
