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Cape Town - Nehe Milner-Skudder will make his long-awaited return to action after being named in the Hurricanes match day squad to face the Sunwolves on Friday.
Kick-off is at 09:35 SA time.
The All Blacks wing has been sidelined since injuring his shoulder in October 2017 has been named on the replacements bench and is part of a strong Hurricanes line-up selected by head coach Chris Boyd for the Super Rugby match at Westpac Stadium in Wellington.
Scrumhalf Finlay Christie will make his debut for the Hurricanes and will have plenty of experience outside him with Beauden Barrett starting inside an exciting midfield pairing of Vince Aso and Matt Proctor.
Boyd has opted to make some changes in the pack from the squad who beat the Chiefs a fortnight earlier with Ben May coming in for Jeff Toomaga-Allen while Reed Prinsep comes into the loose forward mix with captain Brad Shields moving to number eight as Gareth Evans, who has started every match, moves to the bench.
Ardie Savea, who was injured against the Highlanders in March, has been bracketed with Sam Henwood who has recovered from a head knock he suffered early against the Chiefs.
Experienced wing Julian Savea also returns to the starting XV after he missed the Chiefs match and will be joined at the back by the competition's leading try scorer Ben Lam and in-form Jordie Barrett.
There is plenty of quality on the bench which will feature the return of Milner-Skudder from his long-term shoulder injury while Jackson Garden-Bachop replaces Ihaia West.
Inside centre Ngani Laumape and lock Vaea Fifita have been given the week off.
Teams:
Hurricanes
15 Jordie Barrett, 14 Julian Savea, 13 Matt Proctor, 12 Vince Aso, 11 Ben Lam, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Finlay Christie, 8 Brad Shields (captain), 7 Ardie Savea/Sam Henwood, 6 Reed Prinsep, 5 Murray Douglas, 4 Michael Fatialofa, 3 Ben May, 2 Ricky Riccitelli, 1 Toby Smith
Substitutes: 16 James O’Reilly, 17 Chris Eves, 18 Jeff Toomaga-Allen, 19 Sam Lousi, 20 Gareth Evans, 21 Jamie Booth, 22 Jackson Garden-Bachop, 23 Nehe Milner-Skudder
Sunwolves
15 William Tupou, 14 Hosea Saumaki, 13 Timothy Lafaele, 12 Michael
Little, 11 Kenki Fukuoka, 10 Hayden Parker, 9 Fumiaka Tanaka, 8 Kazuki
Himeno, 7 Pieter Labuschagne (captain), 6 Yoshitaka Tokunaga, 5 Grant
Hattingh, 4 James Moore, 3 Takuma Asahara, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Craig
Millar
Substitutes: 16 Jaba Bregvadze, 17 Shintaro Ishihara, 18 Nikoloz Khataishvili, 19 Wimpie van der Walt, 20 Edward Quirk, 21 Yutaka Nagare, 22 Yu Tamura, 23 Semisi Masirewa
