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Hurricanes vs Sunwolves: Super Rugby live scores, blog

27th April, 2018
Where: Westpac Stadium, Wellington
When: 5:35pm (AEST)
TV: Live, Fox Sports
Betting: Hurricanes $1, Sunwolves $41

Hurricanes
15 Jordie Barrett
14 Julian Savea
13 Matt Proctor
12 Vince Aso
11 Ben Lam
10 Beauden Barrett
9 Finlay Christie
8 Brad Shields (c)
7 Ardie Savea/Sam Henwood
6 Reed Prinsep
5 Murray Douglas
4 Michael Fatialofa
3 Ben May
2 Ricky Riccitelli
1 Toby Smith

16 James O’Reilly
17 Chris Eves
18 Jeff Toomaga-Allen
19 Sam Lousi
20 Gareth Evans
21 Jamie Booth
22 Jackson Garden-Bachop
23 Nehe Milner-Skudder

Sunwolves
15 William Tupou
14 Hosea Saumaki
13 Timothy Lafaele
12 Michael Little
11 Kenki Fukuoka
10 Hayden Parker
9 Fumiaki Tanaka
8 Kazuki Himeno
7 Pieter Lappies Labuschagne (c)
6 Yoshitaka Tokunaga
5 Grant Hattingh
4 James Moore
3 Takuma Asahara
2 Shota Horie
1 Craig Millar

16 Jaba Bregvadze
17 Shintaro Ishihara
18 Nikoloz Khataishvili
19 Wimpie van der Walt
20 Edward Quirk
21 Yutaka Nagare
22 Yu Tamura
23 Semisi Masirewa
The Hurricanes host the Sunwolves. (Photo by Kerry Marshall/Getty Images)
Expert
27th April, 2018
99
2086 Reads

The Hurricanes take on the Sunwolves in Wellington as Round 11 of the Super Rugby season gets underway. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 5:35pm (AEST).

The last time – in fact, the only time – these teams met, the Canes almost broke the century mark, winning 83-17 in Round 1 last year.

The Sunwolves are a better side now for sure but then arguably so are the Hurricanes.

The Canes are currently sitting second in the competitive New Zealand conference and fourth overall.

Considering the Sunwolves’ fortunes – played eight, lost eight and by an average of 35 points in their last five away games – it’s easy to write this game off as predictable and without overall importance but there are some interesting subplots.

For the Hurricanes their fearless leader, Brad Shields, has found himself in the middle of an international tug of war between the England RFU and New Zealand Rugby Union. Eddie Jones has said that he wants to take Shields on the England tour to South Africa in a couple of months but the NZRU are insistent that Shields is contracted until the end of the season and cannot play for another national side until then. Whether this drama has an impact is yet to be seen.

Rugby fans everywhere will be excited about seeing Ben Lam in this game – when you combine one of the most effective ball runners in the competition with one of the weakest defences, we could be looking at a long highlights reel post-game.

Arguably even more exciting for the Canes faithful is the return of Nehe Milner-Skudder – he’s been out since October but his shoulder injury has been responding well and he’s likely to come on from the bench.

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For the Sunwolves, this match will likely see another brave performance from their leader Pieter Labuschagne. Interestingly, the combination of his team having to do a lot of defending this season and his own ability and guts has Labuschagne as one of the top defenders in the whole competition. He’s a talismanic figure for the team from Japan and he’s going to need to be at his best.

Prediction
It’s hard to see any other result than a Canes victory, with the real question being how big the winning margin will be.

Hurricanes to win by 25.

Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 5:35pm (AEST) on Friday.

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