{"id":86421,"date":"2021-06-17T05:44:08","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T05:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=86421"},"modified":"2021-06-17T06:07:21","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T06:07:21","slug":"blues-stars-ruled-out-of-super-rugby-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=86421","title":{"rendered":"Blues stars ruled out of Super Rugby final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Key Blues forwards Tom Robinson and Ofa Tuungafasi have been ruled out of Saturday's (5.05pm AEST) Super Rugby trans-Tasman final against the Highlanders at Eden Park.<\/p>\n

Robinson, the club's vice-captain, suffered a head knock in the round five win over the Force while All Blacks prop Tuungafasi will undergo surgery on a bothersome knee.<\/p>\n

"It's sad for Ofa who is our longest serving current player while Tom has led us well this year when (captain) Patrick (Tuipulotu) was injured," Blues coach Leon MacDonald said.<\/p>\n

The only place rugby fans can watch every match is on Stan Sport. Start your free sport trial now!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"The boys will be determined to do well for them on Saturday."<\/p>\n

While far from ideal, MacDonald's Blues do have the luxury of real depth in their forward stocks to cover the losses.<\/p>\n

Akira Ioane will start for Robinson at blindside flanker while another Test player, Nepo Laulala, will continue at tighthead.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Humble carpark start for global sports behemoth<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Wallabies star unleashed for Olympic sevens tilt<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Rebels bolters headline fresh Wallabies squad<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Wainui's<\/p>\n

Flanker Dalton Papalii and five-eighth Otere Black were both cleared after proving their fitness at training.<\/p>\n

The Blues will start favourites but the Highlanders also finished 5-0 in round-robin.<\/p>\n

"The Highlanders have been outstanding all season," MacDonald said.<\/p>\n

"They have excellent set-piece, they are very accurate and they have some dangerous attacking players. It should be a whale of a game."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Highlanders named dynamic winger Jona Nareki and giant lock Pari Pari Parkinson in their starting lineup but remain under injury clouds.<\/p>\n

"We've named both of them but we've got our main training today, and that's when we test each other out," Highlanders coach Clarke Dermody said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

"If they get through that with flying colours then they'll be on the plane. We don't want to find out on Saturday night that they aren't ready to go."<\/p>\n

Inspirational co-captain Ash Dixon will play his 100th game for the Highlanders.<\/p>\n

BLUES (15-1):<\/strong> Zarn Sullivan, Bryce Heem, Rieko Ioane, TJ Faiane, Mark Telea, Otere Black, Finlay Christie, Hoskins Sotutu, Dalton Papalii, Akira Ioane, Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, Patrick Tuipulotu (c), Nepo Laulala, Kurt Eklund, Alex Hodgman<\/p>\n

Reserves<\/strong>: Ray Niuia, Karl Tu'inukuafe, Marcel Renata, Josh Goodhue, Blake Gibson, Jonathan Ruru, Harry Plummer, AJ Lam<\/p>\n

HIGHLANDERS (15-1):<\/strong> Josh Ioane, Patelesio Tomkinson, Michael Collins, Scott Gregory, Jona Nareki, Mitch Hunt, Aaron Smith (co-c), Kazuki Himeno, Billy Harmon, Hugh Renton, Bryn Evans, Pari Pari Parkinson, Siate Tokolahi, Ash Dixon (co-c), Ethan de Groot<\/p>\n

Reserves:<\/strong> Liam Coltman, Ayden Johnstone, Josh Hohneck, Josh Dickson, James Lentjes, Kayne Hammington, Sam Gilbert, Teariki Ben-Nicholas<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Key Blues forwards Tom Robinson and Ofa Tuungafasi have been ruled out of Saturday's (5.05pm AEST) Super Rugby trans-Tasman final against the Highlanders at Eden […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86421"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86423,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86421\/revisions\/86423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}