With the Force playing Moana Pasifika tomorrow and with certain players ruled out last minute before our game against the Rebels, does anyone have the inside word on who will be travelling to Perth?

The Force will be on their third game in the space of seven days so should we really bother sending the likes of Ardie and Jordie all the way over to Perth before the playoffs…

Others that could do with a rest are Howden, Lomax, Morgan and Walker-Leawere. I feel like they’ve played plenty of minutes lately.

@Stargazer have you heard anything more about how D Flanders is trucking?

@Canes4life No idea about Flanders, but he hasn't been back playing club rugby yet, so I think it's safe to say he won't be on the plane to Perth. Would love to be wrong though.

Interesting last round.

As you suggest canes4life we could send a bit of a B team.

The Reds have the Saders, and the Tahs have the Blues. You'd expect the NZ teams to get up so even if we lost we'd still stay in 5th.

I could see the Tahs winning at home though since it's a nothing game for the Blues.

Most likely we'll play the Chiefs, but if we slip up most likely we'll be away to the Brumbies. I think I'd rather play the Chiefs than the Brumbies away TBH. Brumbies play the type of rugby the Canes don't normally cope well with.

The tricky thing would be if the Force get 5 against Moana, then they will still be in with a chance to make the 8 if they beat us, so they could go all out.

Just thinking some more - are the Drua a chance against the Chiefs? If they get up we'd want to beat the Force and get the home quarter.

Weighing it all up I think I'd still pick a strong team. Try finish 4th or 5th at worst. Away to the Saders or Brumbies would be much harder than the Chiefs.

@foobaNZ said in Western Force vs Hurricanes:

Just thinking some more - are the Drua a chance against the Chiefs? If they get up we'd want to beat the Force and get the home quarter.

Weighing it all up I think I'd still pick a strong team. Try finish 4th or 5th at worst. Away to the Saders or Brumbies would be much harder than the Chiefs.

Canes will go all out against the Force with a chance for 4th.
Playing in Fiji is not an easy task and has banana skin written all over it.

@foobaNZ said in Western Force vs Hurricanes:

Interesting last round.
As you suggest canes4life we could send a bit of a B team

It a tough one. Have tired (or injured) players for the semi's due to travel etc or take a punt on a side missing 5th spot. I would take a punt and rest key players where the team is well covered. Esp as some have recently had the flu it seems

But as mentioned by crucial 4th is also possible. But very unlikely.

@Winger said in Western Force vs Hurricanes:

@foobaNZ said in Western Force vs Hurricanes:

Interesting last round.
As you suggest canes4life we could send a bit of a B team

It a tough one. Have tired (or injured) players for the semi's due to travel etc or take a punt on a side missing 5th spot. I would take a punt and rest key players where the team is well covered. Esp as some have recently had the flu it seems

But as mentioned above by crucial 4th is also possible. But very unlikley

I hope they don't send a 'B' team, like the idea of going for it, if there any chance of making top 4.

Ah but a lot of Holland's B selections are better than his A selections, so that's a twist!

As long as Ardie goes we're fine, he has pretty much dragged the canes over the line two or three times this season, we'd be hanging around with the Highlanders without him.

@Machpants said in Western Force vs Hurricanes:

Ah but a lot of Holland's B selections are better than his A selections, so that's a twist!

As long as Ardie goes we're fine, he has pretty much dragged the canes over the line two or three times this season, we'd be hanging around with the Highlanders without him.

Nah the Canes aren’t that bad mate. We actually have a bit of depth in most positions, something the Landers don’t have as we saw on the weekend.

The Canes have had a massively disrupted season with injuries aswell and we have coped admirably to be fair. Ardie doesn’t need to go to Perth for us to win, guys like Howden, Laubsher etc are all more than capable of slotting in there as we’ve seen recently.

I’m confident that if we send a team similar to the one that played the Drua, and more recently the Rebels that we will come away with the points. It’s not necessarily a B team, it’s just that we won’t have to risk the likes of Barrett and ASav before the playoffs which to me is the smart thing to do.

Something like the below would do nicely with a few additional players as travelling reserves.

1. Pouri Rakete-Stones
2. Dane Coles
3. Owen Franks
4. Scott Scrafton
5. Justin Sangster
6. Caleb Delany
7. Blake Gibson
8. Tyler Laubsher (if fit)
9. TJ Perenara
10. Ruben Love
11. Salesi Rayasi
12. Peter Umaga-Jensen
13. Bailyn Sullivan
14. Wes Goosen
15. Josh Moorby
16. Asafo Aumua
17. Xavier Numia
18. Pasilio Tosi
19. Tom Parsons
20. Du Plessis Kirifi
21. Cam Roigard
22. Jackson Garden-Bachop
23. Billy Proctor

That means we can rest J Barrett, A Morgan, J Savea, A Savea, I Walker-Leawere, J Blackwell, T Mafileo, TK Howden and Tyrel Lomax who have all had big shifts lately.

UPDATE: Going from the photos on Getty it looks like a good chunk of the side hasn’t made Tuesday training, a worry considering they fly out tomorrow.

This could be further effects from the flu that ripped through the squad on Saturday.

There is no sign of Aumua, ASavea, I Walker-Leawere, Perenara, Lomax, J Barrett, R Love, D Coles, P Umaga-Jensen, TK Howden and probably a few more.

Looks like all of Prinsep, Iose, Patafilo and Bird are all there now though which is interesting.

@Canes4life Looking at those photos, it's impossible to predict a full line-up, because sometimes a player wears a bib with a number and in other photos it's another player wearing the same number. Again in other photos you see them just in a training jersey without number. For example, in one photo Wes Goosen wears the bib with no. 14 and J Savea just a number-less jersey; in another photo Julian wears the bib with no. 14. Same with Scrafton and Blackwell and the no. 4 bib. Both Iose and Prinsep wearing the no. 8 bib in some photos and no bib in others. Ah, the suspense ....

@Stargazer yeah that's what I was thinking aswell. I wonder how many players who weren't there today will make the plane? Could be a bit of a makeshift Canes team for this week but it's not like they haven't dealt with distruptions already this season. I will back us to beat the Force no matter who we send over.

well then in the words of John Campbell go the Hurricanes!!!

I'd like to see Tosi start a game for once. He's exclusively seen as an impact player. But he was good in each of his short outings so far so why not try him in the starting XV to see how he can scrummage, lift or move bodies in the rucks. He could add some muscle in a lightweight frontfive.

Hurricanes

1 Pouri Rakete-Stones, 2 Dane Coles, 3 Owen Franks, 4 James Blackwell, 5 Justin Sangster, 6 Caleb Delany, 7 Du'Plessis Kirifi, 8 Brayden Iose, 9 TJ Perenara (c), 10 Aidan Morgan, 11 Salesi Rayasi, 12 Billy Proctor, 13 Bailyn Sullivan, 14 Wes Goosen, 15 Josh Moorby

Reserves: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 Xavier Numia, 18 Tevita Mafileo, 19 Blake Gibson, 20 Ardie Savea, 21 Jamie Booth, 22 Jackson Garden-Bachop, 23 Teihorangi Walden

@Stargazer said in Western Force vs Hurricanes:

Hurricanes

1 Pouri Rakete-Stones, 2 Dane Coles, 3 Owen Franks, 4 James Blackwell, 5 Justin Sangster, 6 Caleb Delany, 7 Du'Plessis Kirifi, 8 Brayden Iose, 9 TJ Perenara (c), 10 Aidan Morgan, 11 Salesi Rayasi, 12 Billy Proctor, 13 Bailyn Sullivan, 14 Wes Goosen, 15 Josh Moorby

Reserves: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 Xavier Numia, 18 Tevita Mafileo, 19 Blake Gibson, 20 Ardie Savea, 21 Jamie Booth, 22 Jackson Garden-Bachop, 23 Teihorangi Walden

Bit of a mix, should be to much for the force, touch wood!

@Machpants Delany looks to be lock cover. Pretty solid side considering the circumstances.

Good to see Brayden Iose returning, thought he was gone for the season.

@Stargazer Billy Proctor must the signing of the century now that he is good enough to be a starter at second five, along with fullback, winger and centre. J. Garden-Bachop must be getting the shakes that the selectors will also unearth some hitherto unknow latent talent in Proctor that makes him the next big thing at first five.

@Higgins lol are you alright mate?

Lol poor PUJ can't even make the 23 for a game like this.