The Blues make one change for Western Force
No room for Braid as Blues change one
RugbyHeaven | Thursday, 13 March 2008
No room for Braid as Blues change one - New Zealand's source for sport, rugby, cricket & league news on Stuff.co.nz
The Blues made just one change to their starting XV - and ruled out Daniel Braid - for their clash with the Western Force in Albany on Saturday night.
Coach David Nucifora decided lock Kurtis Haiu was the only player needing a rest from a pack that had gone four rounds unchanged. Anthony Boric moves into the second row with Haiu on the bench.
Braid will make his comeback from a shoulder injury through the Blues Development team in Saturday's curtainraiser against their Wellington counterparts.
"Consistency has been a big factor of our campaign to date and having assessed the players after their travel home from South Africa, everybody's in good form," said Nucifora.
"Anthony has performed well off the bench so far this season and deserves this opportunity. Given Kurtis Haiu's form this season, he will make a major impact later in the game.
"The decision to keep Daniel Braid out of the line-up this week is to give him some much-needed game time and a decent hit-out before throwing him into the mix. Daniel commits himself 100% every time he plays and having not played a game for several months, a development game this week is the sensible option. It is the ideal vehicle to ease Braidy back in."
The Blues are coming off a loss to the Sharks while the Force were edged by the Crusaders last week.
BLUES: 15 Ben Atiga, 14 Anthony Tuitavake, 13 Isaia Toeava, 12 Benson Stanley, 11 Joe Rokocoko, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Danny Lee, 8 Nick Williams, 7 Justin Collins, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Troy Flavell, 4 Anthony Boric, 3 John Afoa, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock. Reserves: 16 Tom McCartney, 17 Nick White, 18 Kurtis Haiu, 19 Onosai Tololima-Auva'a, 20 Taniela Moa, 21 Rudi Wulf, 22 George Pisi.
