Former Highlander Gareth Evans will start for the Hurricanes tomorrow night and will be back with the Magpies for the Mitre 10 Cup. Photo / File
Former Highlander Gareth Evans will start for the Hurricanes tomorrow night and will be back with the Magpies for the Mitre 10 Cup. Photo / File
Fears Hawke's Bay Magpies No 8 Gareth Evans may be playing his Mitre 10 Cup rugby for another province this year have been alleviated.
New Magpies head coach Mark Ozich confirmed last night new Hurricane Evans will be turning out for the Bay again this season. Evans, 26, playedonly two games for the Bay last year because of a thigh injury, and after his player-of-the-match display in the Magpies' thrilling 36-31 win against the Manawatu Turbos in their final outing he said he had yet to sign a Mitre 10 Cup contract.
However, Ozich said Evans recently signed a contract when he was asked how many of the 2017 Magpies in the Hurricanes team for tomorrow night's first pre-season outing against the Crusaders in Greymouth can still be referred to as Magpies. Former Highlander Evans and winger Jonah Lowe will start for the Canes and first five-eighth Ihaia West and prop Ben May will get game time off the pine in the 5.30pm encounter.
"Jonah will be back with us again as will Ben. Ihaia has some offshore options to ponder but if he stays in New Zealand after the Super season he will be back with us," Ozich said.
Ozich pointed out Magpies loosie Marino Mikaele-Tu'u, who was a world champion Baby Black last year, has secured a Highlanders contract. He said the Magpies were close to securing the services of 2016-17 captain and long-serving Highlanders hooker Ash Dixon.
Former All Black halfback Brad Weber and fellow Chiefs, lock Michael Allardice and outside back Sam McNicol, will be back with the Magpies this season.
Former Magpies hooker Ricky Riccitelli will start for the Hurricanes tomorrow night and former Magpies prop Tolu Fahamokioa is on the subs bench.
Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd will give 32 players an opportunity to strut their stuff but he won't have the services of his 2017 All Blacks. He has mixed some of his experienced players with several newcomers, including Lowe, who have yet to play a first-class Super Rugby match.
Six-test Wallaby prop Toby Smith, who has returned to New Zealand after a stint with the Melbourne Rebels, will partner first-season frontrower Alex Fidow, a world champion Baby Black who was impressive for Wellington in last year's Mitre 10 Cup. Evans has been joined by experienced campaigner Brad Shields and the promising Brayden Iose in the starting loose forward trio.
Manawatu's Jamie Booth, a member of the Hurricanes' wider training squad in 2015, will start at halfback with Maori All Black Jackson Garden-Bachop outside him at first five-eighth. One of the Hurricanes' standouts last season, Matt Proctor, returns from injury and will start at centre.
Boyd said the squad's five-day camp in Gisborne had been productive and his players got to further fine-tune some of the work they hope to put in place over the season. He felt the pre-season match against the Crusaders in the Hurricanes' heartland of Waverley had been really beneficial last year and he hoped they would get the same sort of reward from the match in Greymouth.
"It's a great opportunity for a lot of boys in the squad to move from the training field and into a game-day situation against real quality opposition," he said.
"We're really pleased with how the squad has come together, they've worked really hard over the last few weeks and are keen to get the season moving forward."
