Hurricanes vs Bulls: Super Rugby live scores, blog

The Hurricanes will welcome the Bulls to the New Zealand capital in the third quarter-final of this year’s Super Rugby competition.

It could end up being a real clash of styles with the attacking flair of the Canes looking to overcome the power and brutality of the Bulls pack and is certain to be a memorable encounter.

Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of this exciting match starting from 5:35pm AEST on Saturday.

The Canes have been one of the best teams in the competition all season and have had a place in the Finals locked in for quite a while. With that level of success comes both a great expectation and a fear of that key game where they slip up.

The good news for the team and fans are that they will welcome back a long list of their best talent into the starting line up for Saturday’s game. Many stars have been out over the past few weeks either from injury or just being rested, but they all return this weekend and there should be some fireworks.

In the backs Beauden Barrett is back to guide the team from fly half and the try scoring machine that is Ngani Laumape will take his usual place in the centres after missing last week.

Wes Goosen will return on the wing and with Jordie Barrett at full back there is going to be pace and skill coming at the Bulls defence from all points on the pitch.

The South Africans are going to have to be very careful with ball retention and their kicking – they cannot give the Canes any sort of chance to counter attack as they are ruthless in broken play.

Up front it should be an incredible battle and the Canes will be happy that they’ve got their best back in the pack to take on this challenge.

Toby Smith, Jeff To’omaga-Allen, James Blackwell and Ardie Savea are all back in the run on side. While Savea has been one of the players of the whole competition so far this year, the Canes will need a great performance from their whole pack to stand up to the power and organisation of the Bulls pack.

And what a pack it is. They come with a big weight advantage – over 25kg more than light weight Canes pack – and boy do they know how to use it.

It would be easy to view their forwards as just walking brutality, but they also have the most effective line out in the entire competition winning over 93 per cent of their throws.

Interestingly the Canes have the less effective line out so don’t be surprised to see the Bulls look to exploit this.

But the Bulls will need more than their huge locks – Jason Jenkins and RG Snyman are both over 2.01m tall and that’s before they are lifted – if they are going to win the match.

With this in mind the Bulls will be relieved that one of their best strike weapons – Jessie Kreil – is back from a recent ankle injury.

Arguably the key man for the Bulls is their fly half Handré Pollard. He had a great game last week and will need to have an even better one this week.

His kicking – both off the tee and from hand – will be crucial and if his pack can help get him quick, clean ball then we could well see Pollard guide his team into the semi finals.

These two sides have met 19 times in Super Rugby over the years and across all those games there is absolutely nothing between them in terms of points scored. They’ve historically had many very tight games.

Prediction
Without a doubt the Canes are favourites for this one. They have plenty of talent, home advantage and are in good form.

If they can weather the storm from the Bulls pack early on then they should have all the skill to win the match and book a semi-final spot.

Canes by 10.

Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of this exciting match starting from 5:35pm AEST on Saturday.

Where: Westpac Stadium, Wellington
Date: Saturday 22nd June 2019
When: 5:35pm AEST
TV: Foxsports
Betting: Hurricanes $1.18, Bulls $4.80

Hurricanes
15 Jordie Barrett
14 Wes Goosen
13 Peter Umaga-Jensen
12 Ngani Laumape
11 Ben Lam
10 Beauden Barrett
9 TJ Perenara
8 Gareth Evans
7 Ardie Savea
6 Reed Prinsep
5 Isaia Walker-Leawere
4 James Blackwell
3 Jeff To’omaga-Allen
2 Dane Coles (c)
1 Toby Smith

Replacements
16 Asafo Aumua
17 Fraser Armstrong
18 Ben May/Alex Fidow
19 Kane Le’aupepe
20 Du’Plessis Kirifi
21 Richard Judd/Finlay Christie
22 James Marshall
23 Salesi Rayasi

Bulls
15 Warrick Gelant
14 Cornal Hendricks
13 Jesse Kriel
12 Johnny Kotze
11 Rosko Specman
10 Handré Pollard (c)
9 Andre Warner
8 Duane Vermeulen
7 Hanro Liebenberg
6 Marco van Staden
5 RG Snyman
4 Jason Jenkins
3 Trevor Nyakane
2 Jaco Visagie
1 Lizo Gqoboka

Replacements
16. Johan Grobbelaar
17. Simphiwe Matanzima
18. Wiehahn Herbst
19. Jannes Kirsten
20. Ruan Steenkamp
21. Ivan van Zyl
22. Manie Libbok
23. Divan Rossouw

Referee: Nic Berry
Assistant Ref: Ben O’Keeffe, Brendon Pickerill
TMO: Glenn Newman

2019 Form (last 5 games)
Hurricanes – WLWWW
Bulls – WLDDW

Played 19
Hurricanes won 10
Bulls won 9