Double blow for ambitious Blues
The Blues will be without veteran All Blacks prop Tony Woodcock and captain Luke Braid for their crunch Super Rugby match against the Chiefs at Eden Park on Friday.
Woodcock suffered a shoulder injury during last week's loss to the Crusaders and with a six day turnaround coach John Kirwan felt he would not be fully fit and it was not worth risking him.
"Woody's had a great season for us so it's a big loss. He's been quite outstanding really and one of our best players since he's been back," Kirwan said.
"It's unfortunate but he's not quite 100 percent and we need to make sure he's fine. I don't think it's too serious but it could be if he played with it and it's something he needs to get on top of."
Sam Prattley will replace Woodcock at loosehead prop, while Brendon O'Connor comes in for Luke Braid who has been carrying a shoulder injury all season and will undergo surgery Thursday.
"He's been carrying a shoulder injury all year which has started to affect him quite badly. He missed the last Chiefs game because of it. He's been having issues so he needs to have double shoulder reconstruction," Kirwan said.
"We had two tentative dates booked, this week and the week after the finals and I just felt that if we could get it done now then he'd be back for the beginning of next season.
"It'll be quite a long recovery, the next date is a month away which would mean he'd miss the first month of next season and while we haven't given up hope of making the finals we've got a great guy to come in in Brendon O'Connor so there's not too much of a loss from a technical point of view."
Charles Piutau returns to his favoured position of fullback in a reshuffled Blues backline, with Tevita Li coming onto the left wing in place of George Moala, while Lolagi Visinia is hoping to overcome a haematoma to his quad and is currently bracketed with Moala.
Francis Saili also comes in at centre for Pita Ahki who has joined the New Zealand Sevens team ahead of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow later this month.
"Pita Ahki has really grown this year and I think he's going to be a special player. It's really important to let guys follow their dreams and one of his dreams was to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal so we sat down and spoke about this about six weeks ago," Kirwan said.
"I spoke to Titch [Sevens coach Gordon Tietjens] about it and the deal was if we were still travelling well I couldn't release him but if we were struggling a wee bit or out of the play-offs they could have him. Last Sunday we weren't out of the play-offs so Pita wanted to play for us this weekend then go to the Sevens but I just felt that we've got a great player in Francis Saili who hasn't played a lot of footy this year and we don't lose a lot by letting Pita go and follow his dreams and help New Zealand get gold."
Blues: 15 Charles Piutau, 14 Lolagi Visinia/George Moala, 13 Francis Saili, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Tevita Li, 10 Ihaia West, 9 Bryn Hall, 8 Jerome Kaino, 7 Brendon O'Connor, 6 Steven Luatua, 5 Tom Donnelly, 4 Patrick Tuipulotu, 3 Charlie Faumuina, 2 Keven Mealamu (captain), 1 Sam Prattley.
Replacements: 16 James Parsons, 17 Ofa Tu'ungafasi, 18 Angus Ta'avao, 19 Hayden Triggs, 20 Peter Saili, 21 Jamison Gibson-Park, 22 Jackson Willison, 23 George Moala/Albert Nikoro.
Date: Friday, July 11
Venue: Eden Park, Auckland
Kick-off: 19.35 (07.35 GMT)
Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Nick Briant (New Zealand), Brendan Pickerill (New Zealand)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)
