Jeff Toomaga-Allen hits 100 for Hurricanes

Cape Town - Hurricanes prop Jeff Toomaga-Allen will make his 100th Super Rugby appearance in Friday's highly anticipated quarter-final against the Chiefs at Westpac Stadium.

Toomaga-Allen, who brought up his 100th match for the club last week in Hamilton, will become just the 15th Hurricanes player to reach the milestone. 

The 27-year-old made his debut for the Hurricanes in 2012 against the Stormers alongside long-time team-mates Ben May, TJ Perenara and Brad Shields. 

He will be the fourth player this season to reach the mark after Beauden Barrett, Perenara and Shields. 

Hurricanes head coach Chris Boyd has named a largely settled squad for the quarter-final. 

Captain Brad Shields has been bracketed to allow him as much time as possible to get over a rib injury while Gareth Evans will start in the number seven jersey in place of Sam Henwood. 

There are minimal changes in the back line, although Boyd has moved Jordie Barrett to centre to allow the return of crowd favourite and centurion Julian Savea to the starting XV. 

Savea will be on the right wing with Ben Lam on the left as Nehe Milner-Skudder moves to fullback as the Hurricanes prepare to face the Chiefs for the second straight week after the two sides played out an exciting 80 minutes in Hamilton. 

Wes Goosen, who has been recovering from the head knock he suffered last week, has been bracketed on the bench with Jonah Lowe while the squad has been further strengthened by the return from injury of All Black Vaea Fifita. 

Boyd said the squad was delighted to have another opportunity to play in front of their home fans and believed the Hurricanes could deliver a performance good enough to keep their season and title hopes alive. 

He has been impressed with the way the squad has prepared in the build-up to the match and could sense the excitement levels growing by the day.

Teams:

Hurricanes

15 Nehe Milner-Skudder, 14 Julian Savea, 13 Jordie Barrett, 12 Ngani Laumape, 11 Ben Lam, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Blade Thomson, 7 Gareth Evans, 6 Brad Shields (captain)/Reed Prinsep, 5 Sam Lousi, 4 Michael Fatialofa, 3 Jeff Toomaga-Allen, 2 Ricky Riccitelli, 1 Toby Smith

Substitutes: 16 James O’Reilly, 17 Chris Eves, 18 Ben May, 19 Vaea Fifita, 20 Reed Prinsep/Sam Henwood, 21 Jamie Booth 22 Ihaia West 23 Wes Goosen/Jonah Lowe

Chiefs

15 Solomon Alaimalo, 14 Sean Wainui, 13 Anton Lienert-Brown, 12 Charlie Ngatai (captain), 11 Shaun Stevenson, 10 Damian McKenzie, 9 Brad Weber, 8 Liam Messam, 7 Sam Cane, 6 Lachlan Boshier, 5 Michael Allardice, 4 Brodie Retallick, 3 Angus Ta’avao, 2 Nathan Harris, 1 Karl Tu’inukuafe

Substitutes: 16 Liam Polwart, 17 Sam Prattley, 18 Jeff Thwaites, 19 Jesse Parete, 20 Mitch Karpik , 21 Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi, 22 Marty McKenzie, 23 Alex Nankivell