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All Blacks loose forward Ardie Savea will make his return for the Hurricanes after seven weeks on the sideline.
Savea has recovered from an MCL injury he suffered in a Super Rugby Aotearoa clash against the Crusaders in April and will come off the bench for the Hurricanes against the Western Force in Napier this weekend.
The Hurricanes will run out a new-look side this week, with Asafo Aumua moving into the starting hooker role in place of Dane Coles who is being rested. Isaia Walker-Leawere (lock), Luke Campbell (halfback), Salesi Rayasi (left wing) and Peter Umaga-Jensen (centre) all return to the starting XV, while Gareth Evans lines up at the back of the scrum.
Julian Savea has also been rested as the Hurricanes hope to continue their unbeaten start to the transtasman campaign.
It's been an unflattering start to Super Rugby Transtasman for the Australian sides, but the 10-0 record in favour of New Zealand teams doesn't necessarily reflect the full picture.
Hurricanes loose forward Ardie Savea is back from injury. Photo / Photosport
Hurricanes assistant coach Chris Gibbes has laid to rest any notion that the Australian teams don't match their New Zealand counterparts in physicality.
The Force have arguably been the best of the Australian teams through the opening two rounds, with losses by just one and 10 points against the Chiefs and Highlanders.
"Everyone has talked about the Aotearoa being really physical – I can tell you now the Aussies are right up there," Gibbes said.
"You have to be accurate around running lines, around your clean stuff; you have to be really accurate or else they'll be into it, and I think that's probably one of the things that's shown us up.
"At the end of the day, I can't speak for how they're coached or what their philosophies are, but it's a little bit different than ours – but that's not good or bad.
"But we're just focused on us. That's what we're trying to do and we understand that, for example the Force this weekend, we know they're going to be niggly as f***."
The Hurricanes are second on the ladder after two rounds. Photo / Photosport
The sides will meet in Napier on Friday night in the opening game of the third round, which will mark the midway point of the competition. While the Force played their opening two games of the season at home in Perth, they will have their last three in New Zealand, against the Hurricanes, Crusaders and Blues.
After the opening rounds of the competition, the Hurricanes find themselves in second place on the ladder with a maximum 10 points from the first two games, training the Blues on points differential. While it was a positive spot to be in, Gibbes said there was still plenty of room for improvement.
"You look at teams that go about their work, get their basics and the fundamentals done well, they get the results. That's what we have to continually try and push and try to achieve in our performances.
"That's what we're focused on; it's just making sure we're disciplined enough to stay to that plan and we know we're good enough to get the result that we're after. As far as the competition ladder goes, we have to keep winning – that's the basic line for us.
"If we can do our things well, take the opportunities when they're presented, we'll get the points and the bonus points and the bits and pieces we're after to make sure we go long in this competition."
