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Sunwolves tweak side for Highlanders

TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT: Sunwolves have made two changes to their starting XV for Friday’s match against the Highlanders in Tokyo.

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One of the changes sees South African Grant Hattingh return to the starting line-up. The former Bulls player will don the No.6, replacing Ben Gunter, who takes a spot on the bench.

The other change is at scrumhalf. Japanese international Fumiaki Tanaka replaces Jamie Booth as this week’s No.9.

Dan Pryor retains the captain’s armband.

Sunwolves: 15 Ryohei Yamanaka, 14 Gerhard Van den Heever, 13 Josh Timu, 12 Rahboni Warren Vosayaco, 11 Semisi Masirewa, 10 Hayden Parker, 9 Fumiaki Tanaka, 8 Hendrik Tui, 7 Dan Pryor (captain), 6 Grant Hattingh, 5 Luke Thompson, 4 Mark Abbott, 3 Hiroshi Yamashita, 2 Nathan Vella, 1 Pauliasi Manu.
Replacements: 16 Shota Horie, 17 Alex Woonton, 18 Takuma Asahara, 19 Tom Rowe, 20 Ben Gunter, 21 Kaito Shigeno, 22 Yu Tamura, 23 Jason Emery.

Date: Friday, April 26
Venue: Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium, Tokyo
Kick-off: 19.00 (22.00 NZ time; 10.00 GMT)
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Angus Gardner (Australia), Shuhei Kubo (Japan)
TMO: Minoru Fuji (Japan)

In other news: 

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