Scott Barrett has been ruled out of rugby for five months<\/a>\u00a0as he requires back surgery and will not appear for the defending champions in 2026. The Crusaders will also be without All Blacks star Will Jordan for the rest of the season after he injured his calf while Leicester Fainga’anuku has a few niggles and has been rested. Also missing are George Bell, Cullen Grace and Braydon Ennor.<\/p>\nThe Chiefs are missing a slew of firepower, with Leroy Carter and Damian McKenzie hopeful for next week’s playoffs while the returns of Xavier Roe, Emoni Narawa and Etene Nanai-Seturo remain unclear. Beauden Barrett is the big name missing for the Blues while Taufa Funaki, Dalton Papali’i, and Patrick Tuipulotu are all also sidelined. For the table-topping Hurricanes, both Du’Plessis Kirifi and Devan Flanders may miss the start of the play-offs while they are hopeful of getting Fehi Fineanganofo and Jordie Barrett back in time. Jimmy Tupou, Jonathan Taumateine, Julian Savea, Lalomilo Lalomilo, Monu Moli, and Ngani Laumape have likely all played their final games for Moana Pasifika.<\/p>\n
Crusaders vs Hurricanes<\/b><\/p>\n
Kick off 7.05pm, Friday 29 May.<\/p>\n
One NZ Stadium, Christchurch.<\/p>\n
Live blog updates on RNZ<\/i><\/p>\n
Crusaders:<\/b><\/p>\n
1. George Bower 2. Codie Taylor (VC) 3. Fletcher Newell 4. Antonio Shalfoon 5. Jamie Hannah 6. Dom Gardiner 7. Ethan Blackadder 8. Christian Lio-Willie 9. Noah Hotham 10. Rivez Reihana 11. Sevu Reece 12. David Havili (C) 13. Dallas McLeod 14. Chay Fihaki 15. Johnny McNicholl<\/p>\n
Bench:\u00a0<\/b>16. Manumaua Letiu 17. Finlay Brewis 18. Seb Calder 19. Liam Jack 20. Johnny Lee 21. Kyle Preston 22. Taha Kemara 23. Cooper Roberts.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got a season to finish off here. That’s the focus.” – Crusaders coach Rob Penney.<\/i><\/p>\n
Hurricanes:<\/b><\/p>\n
1. Xavier Numia 2. Raymond Tuputupu 3. Tyrel Lomax 4. Hugo Plummer 5. Isaia Walker-Leawere 6. Brad Shields (c) 7. Cooper Flanders 8. Arese Poliko 9. Cam Roigard 10. Callum Harkin 11. Kini Naholo 12. Jone Rova 13. Josh Timu 14. Taniela Filimone 15. Josh Moorby.<\/p>\n
Bench:\u00a0<\/b>16.\u00a0<\/b>Jacob Devery 17. Pouri Rakete-Stones 18. Tevita Mafileo 19. Tom Allen 20. Matolu Petaia 21. Jordi Viljoen 22. Lucas Cashmore 23. Bailyn Sullivan.<\/p>\n
“We know what’s on the line for the Crusaders. We’ve had a taste of their stadium through Super Round, so to go back is nothing new for us as a team. The atmosphere they’ve created down there with a sold-out stadium looks awesome.” – Hurricanes coach Clark Laidlaw.<\/i><\/p>\n
Chiefs vs Blues<\/b><\/p>\n
Kick off 7.05pm, Saturday 30 May.<\/p>\n
FMG Stadium, Hamilton.<\/p>\n
Live blog updates on RNZ<\/i><\/p>\n
Chiefs:<\/b><\/p>\n
1. Jared Proffit 2. Tyrone Thompson 3. George Dyer 4. Seuseu Naitoa Ah Kuoi 5. Josh Lord 6. Samipeni Finau 7. Jahrome Brown 8. Wallace Sititi (c) 9. Cortez Ratima 10. Josh Jacomb 11. Kyren Taumoefolau 12. Reon Paul 13. Daniel Rona 14. Daniel Sinkinson 15. Liam Coombes-Fabling.\u00a0Bench<\/b>: 16. Brodie McAlister 17. Ben\u00e9t Kumeroa 18. Keran van Staden* 19. Fiti Sa 20. Kaylum Boshier (vc) 21. Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi 22. Tepaea Cook-Savage 23. Lalakai Foketi.<\/p>\n
“We’ve earned the right to manage the team how we want to thanks to the efforts of everyone through the season. It means we can freshen some guys up, but we also know that the intensity of the playoffs means injuries are possible so it’s good to be able to give more players an opportunity so when called upon.” – Chiefs coach Jonno Gibbes.<\/i><\/p>\n
Blues:<\/b><\/p>\n
1. Mason Tupaea 2. James Mullan 3. Marcel Renata 4. Josh Beehre 5. Sam Darry 6. Torian Barnes 7. Anton Segner (c) 8. Malachi Wrampling 9. Sam Nock 10. Stephen Perofeta 11. Caleb Clarke 12. Pita Ahki 13. Xavi Taele 14. AJ Lam 15. Zarn Sullivan.<\/p>\n
Bench:<\/b>\u00a016. Eli Oudenryn 17. Joshua Fusitu’a 18. Flyn Yates 19. Laghlan McWhannell 20. Hoskins Sotutu 21. Finlay Christie 22. Corey Evans 23. Codemeru Vai.<\/p>\n
“We know what’s on the line heading into Hamilton and we’re excited by the opportunity. The Chiefs are a quality side and playing them away is always a huge challenge.” – Blues coach Vern Cotter.<\/i><\/p>\n
Brumbies vs Moana Pasifika<\/b><\/p>\n
GIO Stadium, Canberra.<\/p>\n
Kick off 4.35pm, Saturday 30 May.<\/p>\n
Live blog updates on RNZ<\/i><\/p>\n
Moana Pasifika:<\/b><\/p>\n
1. Malakai Hala-Ngatai 2. Millennium Sanerivi 3. Atu Moli 4. Allan Craig 5. Veikoso Poloniati 6. Miracle Faiilagi (c) 7. Semisi Paea 8. Semisi Tupou Ta’eiloa 9. Augustine Pulu 10. Patrick Pellegrini 11. Glen Vaihu 12. Faletoi Peni 13. Solomon Alaimalo 14. Israel Leota 15. William Havili<\/p>\n
Bench<\/b>: 16. Mamoru Harada 17. Abraham Pole 18. Paula Latu 19. Alefosio Aho 20. Sam Tuitupou Jr 21. Melani Matavao 22. Tevita Latu 23. Tuna Tuitama.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got nothing to lose, you never know what you might see out there, it makes it enjoyable for us to turn up to work each day in a tough time.” – Moana Pasifika coach Fa’alogo Tana Uamga.<\/i><\/p>\n
rnz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We may still be in the regular season, but there is a real finals feel heading into this weekend. The Hurricanes have wrapped up top spot, with the Chiefs comfortably in second. However, a desperate scrap is set to ensue for the last four spots. The Blues have had a week to lick their wounds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17534,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17532\/revisions\/17534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}