Ruled out: Ryan Crotty
Canterbury will be without centre Ryan Crotty and wing Adam Whitelock for Saturday's ITM Cup final against Auckland in Christchurch.
Both players have not recovered sufficiently from injuries sustained in last weekend's semi-final win over Taranaki to make the line-up. Whitelock's absence sees Telusa Veainu take the right wing and back-up scrum-half Willi Heinz the left.
Crotty was pulled from the team for the semi-final at the last minute so, as for that game, Johnny McNicholl goes to full-back and Tom Taylor to inside centre.
Christchurch club utility back Matthew Thatcher has been recruited on to the reserve bench.
Prop Ben Franks has been released by the All Blacks for the Final so will pair up with his All Black teammate Wyatt Crockett.
Canterbury: 15 Johnny McNicholl, 14 Telusa Veainu, 13 Robbie Fruean, 12 Tom Taylor, 11 Willi Heinz, 10 Tyler Bleyendaal, 9 Andy Ellis, 8 Luke Whitelock, 7 Matt Todd, 6 George Whitelock (c), 5 Dominic Bird, 4 Joel Everson, 3 Ben Franks, 2 Ben Funnell, 1 Wyatt Crockett. Replacements: 16 Codie Taylor, 17 Joe Moody, 18 Jed Brown, 19 Jordan Taufua, 20 Matthew Thatcher, 21 Kolio Hifo, 22 Stephen Gee.
Date: Saturday, October 27
Venue: AMI Stadium, Addington
Kick-off: 19.35 (06:35 GMT)
Referee: Glen Jackson
Assistant referees: Mike Fraser, Nick Briant
Television match official: Chris Pollock
Comments
Be the first to comment on this story..