Hooker crisis for Hurricanes
An injury crisis at hooker means Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett was unable to finalise his team for their crunch encounter with the Chiefs in Hamilton on Friday.
The men in black and yellow will be doing all they can to claim victory at the Waikato Stadium, as it will be the last round-robin match of the Super Rugby season for the fifth-placed franchise.
Who occupies the No.2 jersey remains to be seen – with team management continuing to monitor the injuries of Dane Coles, Ash Dixon and Motu Matu'u throughout the remainder of the week.
Injuries to Alapati Leiua and Victor Vito in last Saturday's bruising win over the Crusaders means they have made way for Hadleigh Parkes to start at inside centre, while Brad Shields moves to the back of the scrum.
For both sides, nothing short of a win is required, and Hammett's men are focused on backing up what was an uplifting 16-9 win over the Crusaders in Wellington last weekend.
The Hurricanes and the Chiefs have met 23 times in Super Rugby history, with the Hurricanes winning 12 of those matches, the Chiefs 10, and one ending in a draw.
Hurricanes: 15 Matt Proctor, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Tim Bateman, 12 Hadleigh Parkes, 11 Julian Savea, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Brad Shields, 7 Ardie Savea, 6 Jack Lam, 5 Blade Thomson, 4 Jeremy Thrush (captain), 3 Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, 2 TBC, 1 Ben Franks.
Replacements: 16 TBC, 17 Chris Eves, 18 Reggie Goodes, 19 James Broadhurst, 20 Adam Hill, 21 Chris Smylie, 22 Cardiff Vaega, 23 James Marshall.
Date: Friday, July 4
Venue: Waikato Stadium, Hamilton
Kick-off: 19.35 (07.35 GMT)
Referee: Nick Briant (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Mike Fraser (New Zealand), Brendan Pickerill (New Zealand)
TMO: Glenn Newman (New Zealand)
