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Five All Blacks named in 27-man Hurricanes touring squad

(Photo by ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP via Getty Images)

The Hurricanes have named a squad of 27 players that will travel to Africa and Argentina for the start of the 2020 Super Rugby campaign – including five All Blacks.

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It comes following a close pre-season defeat to the Blues yesterday, where the Hurricanes went down 29 – 28.

In the travelling squad is Ben Lam, Jamie Booth and Ricky Riccitelli – who all scored tries.

Tevita Mafileo, has been with the Blues this year but has been drafted by the Hurricanes and will join them on tour.

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Co-captain, TJ Perenara, will be looking for his first chance to put on the black and yellow jersey in 2020, when the Hurricanes go up against the Stormers in Capetown a week from today.

Head Coach, Jason Holland says the South African side boast several World Cup winners and so it’s going to be a tough clash.

“As always, you can expect the game is going to be extremely physical. We know they will have a certain confidence this year too – but we’ve got a good side who have taken lessons from pre-season and are ready for what’s to come.”

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The Hurricanes will take both first-five options, Jackson Garden-Bachop and Fletcher Smith with them. Plenty of options at second-five too, with Ngani Laumape and Jordie Barrett named in the in the side.

The Hurricanes squad heading away on tour is:

Forwards:
Fraser Armstrong, Tyrel Lomax, Tevita Mafileo, Pouri Rakete-Stones, Alex Fidow, Ricky Riccitelli, Asafo Aumua, James Blackwell, Isaia Walker-Leawere, Scott Scrafton, Du’Plessis Kirifi, Gareth Evans, Vaea Fifita, Devan Flanders, Reed Prinsep.

Backs:
TJ Perenara, Jamie Booth, Jackson Garden-Bachop, Fletcher Smith, Ngani Laumape, Billy Proctor, Vince Aso, Peter Umaga-Jensen, Wes Goosen, Ben Lam, Chase Tiatia, Jordie Barrett.

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F
Flankly 2 hours ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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