The Hurricane will be without four international players for their penultimate Super Rugby regular season game against Brumbies in Canberra.
First-five Beauden Barrett, along with the loose forward trio of Ardie Savea, Vaea Fifita and Brad Shields, have been left out of the Canes squad for the clash at GIO Stadium.
Barrett, Savea and Fifita all suffered injuries during the All Blacks' test series against France, while Shields missed England’s final test against South Africa through illness.
The regular Hurricanes skipper made his international debut for England during the Springboks series.
Barrett and Fifita both missed the third test against France with concussion.
"Both finished their concussions protocols today," says Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd. "Vaea has had two concussions in reasonably short succession, so we're being really cautious around him.
"Beaudie's fine really. He could have played, but it's his standown week and we always anticipated that, given we assumed he would have a reasonably high workload with the All Blacks.
"It's just a week for him to freshen up."
Savea is expected to miss "a few weeks" with the high ankle sprain suffered against the French in Dunedin last weekend
Jackson Garden-Bachop starts at 10 in the absence of Barrett, while TJ Perenara fills the captaincy role for the match. Shields lost 7kg in three days through his illness and was hospitalised with dehydration.
"I had a discussion with him while he was in Africa and told him we wouldn't take him to Canberra," says Boyd. "As you'd expect, he wasn't very happy about that, but he knows it's best for the team."
Reed Prinsep, Sam Henwood and Gareth Evans all start in the loose forwards. All Blacks fullback Jordie Barrett will fill the centre position.
Hurricanes: 1-Toby Smith, 2-Ricky Riccitelli, 3-Jeffery To'omaga-Allen, 4-Michael Fatialofa, 5-Sam Lousi, 6-Reed Prinsep, 7-Sam Henwood, 8-Gareth Evans, 9-TJ Perenara (c), 10-Jackson Garden-Bachop, 11-Ben Lam, 12-Ngani Laumape, 13-Jordie Barrett, 14-Julian Savea, 15-Nehe Milner-Skudder
Reserves: 16-James O'Reilly, 17-Chris Eves, 18-Marcel Renata, 19-Isaia Walker-Leawere, 20-Blade Thomson, 21-Jamie Booth, 22-Ihaia West, 23-Wes Goosen
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Join us at 9:30pm Saturday for live updates of the Hurricanes vs Brumbies Super Rugby clash.
