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Hurricanes get boost ahead of game against 'arguably the best club team in the world'

Hurricanes coach John Plumtree. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

One-test All Blacks centre Matt Proctor could make a timely return from injury for the Wellington Hurricanes in their Super Rugby semi-final against the Canterbury Crusaders on Saturday.

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Proctor injured a chest muscle against the Sharks on June 2 and has not appeared for the side since then.

He played club rugby at the weekend and Hurricanes assistant coach Carlos Spencer said he was being considered for the semi-final.

“Matt got through club rugby on the weekend, which is really positive. We’ll just see how he tracks over the next couple of days,” Spencer said.

Matt Proctor
The Hurrricanes could have Matt Proctor in starting line-up. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

Peter Umaga-Jensen started for the Hurricanes in the 35-28 quarter-final victory against the Bulls.

The 21-year-old’s inexperience was exploited by Springboks opposite Jesse Kriel and Proctor’s possible recall would bolster the midfield against a likely All Blacks pairing of Ryan Crotty and Jack Goodhue.

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Spencer said while it was important to have experience in the semi-final against “arguably the best club team in the world”, Proctor would not make his comeback at Rugby League Park unless he was fully fit.

“Experience is important, especially in games like this, but it’s important that we play guys that are fully fit,” Spencer added.

“We believe guys have got to be 100 per cent fit for them to be able to do a job for us this week.”

The winner of the clash will face either the Jaguares or the ACT Brumbies in the final.

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The Hurricanes face a massive task of defeating the Crusaders in Christchurch, where the nine-time champions have never lost a playoff and are unbeaten at Rugby League Park in 29 matches.

Scott Robertson’s side also comfortably beat the Hurricanes twice in the regular season, racing out to big leads before the Hurricanes managed to reduce the margins of defeat.

It is the second successive year that John Plumtree’s team have headed south for the semi-finals to face the Crusaders, who are seeking a third consecutive title under Robertson.

“We’ve been down there a lot this time of year and come away with nothing,” Plumtree said.

“So we need to really dig deep next week around our preparation, making sure we get that right, get a good plan together and go down there to give it a real good crack.

“The challenge is massive, but it’s something that we can really embrace and look forward to. The pressure will be on them and we can just go down there and have a real crack.”

AAP

Watch: Crusaders coach Scott Robertson explains how they beat the Highlanders

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Flankly 1 hour 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?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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