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Hurricanes suffer injury blow on eve of Super Rugby opener

Jordie Barrett and Sam Lousi. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

The Hurricanes have lost their most experienced lock to a lengthy injury on the eve of their Super Rugby season-opener.

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Sam Lousi has succumbed to a pectoral injury – which is being described as “not short-term” by Hurricanes assistant coach Jason Holland – just four days out from their first match of 2019 against the Waratahs in Sydney.

“We’ll work through that in the next couple of days and see where that’s going to go, but he’s definitely not a short-term injury,” Holland told Fairfax.

“He’s done his pec, just how serious that is we’re figuring out.”

Holland said that while a few players were carrying pre-season injury niggles, none were considered to be as serious as Lousi.

The 27-year-old joins newly-wed All Blacks playmaker Beauden Barrett in being unavailable for this weekend’s clash at Brookvale Oval, although few of the Hurricanes’ eight current All Blacks are expected to start.

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“We’ve just got to be smart around how we manage everyone,” Holland said.

“They’ve had limited pre-seasons, so we’ll be smart about how much time guys get and who starts.

“I’d say we’ll be very much like the Tahs in that they’ll all be involved in some way.”

There is a severe lack of experience in the Hurricanes’ second row stocks in the absence of Lousi, with James Blackwell the only other lock in the squad with more than one Super Rugby cap.

Isaiah Walker-Leawere and Geoff Cridge will probably vacate the spot left open by Lousi, as a Super Rugby debut off just 14 provincial caps for Manawatu lock Liam Mitchell might be too much of a gamble.

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Vaea Fifita could slot into the second row, but the nine-test All Black has been vocal about his desire to play at blindside flanker.

However, the depth of loose forwards within the Hurricanes squad could count against Fifita, with Ardie Savea, Gareth Evans, Reed Prinsep and Heiden Bedwell-Curtis all capable of filling in while the 26-year-old toils away in the tight five.

“I wouldn’t say we’re hellbent on him being a six, we’d like to think we can use his skillset at six, but at the end of the day, depending on what injuries happen, you’ve got to do what’s best for the team at the time,” Holland said.

“He’s a six in our eyes who can cover lock.”

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Flankly 0 minute 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 9 minutes 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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Nickers 38 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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