16 May 2013

Hurricanes stick with same lineup

6:23 am on 16 May 2013

The Hurricanes have named an unchanged lineup to tackle conference leaders the Chiefs in their Super Rugby derby in Wellington on Friday night.

It will be the first time these two sides have met in competition this season, with the repeat local derby fixture in Hamilton set for after the June break.

Last year both the Hurricanes and Chiefs won one match each on their respective home grounds.

Loose forward Faifili Levave, who has played for both the Chiefs and the Hurricanes since his Super Rugby debut in 2008, will again start this week at blindside flanker as he reaches the milestone of 50 caps for the Hurricanes.

Hurricanes: 1. Ben Franks, 2. Ash Dixon, 3. Ben May, 4. Jeremy Thrush, 5. Jason Eaton, 6. Faifili Levave, 7. Jack Lam, 8. Victor Vito (c), 9. TJ Perenara, 10. Beauden Barrett, 11. Julian Savea, 12. Tim Bateman, 13. Reynold Lee-Lo, 14. Alapati Leiua, 15. Andre Taylor

Reserves: 16. Reggie Goodes, 17. Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, 18. James Broadhurst, 19. Brad Shields, 20. Chris Smylie, 21. Tusi Pisi, 22. James Marshall