Thursday Round-Up

Hansen shuffles deck: All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen has made five changes to his side to take on the Wallabies in the final clash of this year’s Bledisloe Cup. The big return comes in the pack, where second row forward Brodie Retallick has shown enough visible signs of recovery from concussion to take his place in the row alongside Sam Whitelock. Elsewhere, Chiefs teammate Liam Messam starts on the blindside in favour of Jerome Kaino, while Wyatt Crockett starts at loose head, with Joe Moody the man to miss out. Also given the nod in the pack, hooker Dane Coles starts ahead of veteran Keven Mealamu at hooker, while there is one change across the back line which sees Cory Jane coming in on the right wing for the rested Ben Smith. Interestingly enough, there is still no place in the match day squad for star flyhalf Aaron Cruden, who remains in the bad books following his disciplinary indiscretion a couple of weeks back. Hansen’s All Blacks have already secured the Bledisloe for another year, but will be keen to put their Springbok defeat behind them.

Blow for Scarlets: Scarlets fans have been dealt a cruel blow just days out from the opening round of their European Rugby Champions Cup campaign, with news emerging that scrum half Gareth Davies will be sidelined for an extensive period of time. 24 year old Davies was forced from the field during the weekend’s all Welsh affair against the Dragons, having done severe damage to his posterior cruciate ligament. However, while luckily for the West Wales man, he will not require any surgery to correct the damage and will only miss roughly three months of action, Having made his international debut in the summer against South Africa in June, Davies was one of the frontline scrum halves being considered by Gatland ahead of the November Internationals. Along with Ken Owens and Regan King, the absence of Davies now makes this weekend’s trip to Toulon even more daunting than initially perceived.

Ryan Sheady