Harford gets start in final round robin fixture

Alex Harford will take the reins for Canterbury in Saturday’s clash against Waikato in Hamilton, meaning Fergus Burke slips back to fullback, while halfback Joel Lam gets his first run in this year’s Bunnings Warehouse NPC.

With Dominic Gardiner making a successful return from injury last week against Tasman, Coach Marty Bourke will roll out the same starting forward pack that held out a fast-finishing Mako side. “We had a great start on Saturday, so if we can replicate that again, we’ll give ourselves every chance to pick up another win.”

The bench is where Bourke has made significant change, with Oli Jager back to give batted tighthead Seb Calder a rest, while Reed Prinsep will add his bulk and experience to the back end of the match. Speedster Blair Murray returns to cover the outside backs, with an eye on adding to his six tries in 2023. Experienced Mitchell Drummond will also be relied upon to close out the contest.

“We need to be better at finishing games off,” said Burke, “Waikato will be a tough opponent at home, we need to control what we can control and having the likes of Drummy and Reed out there to finish the game will be to our benefit.”

“It’ll be great to have Blair back and running freely. He showed how competitive he can be earlier in the season,” Burke added.

Kick off is 2:05pm at FMG Stadium Waikato in Hamilton with the Black Ferns test against Australia to follow, both broadcast on SKY Sport.