Julian Savea joins Hurricanes for remainder of Investec Super Rugby Aotearoa

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The 29 year-old winger returned to New Zealand earlier this year during the Covid-19 pandemic, having finished up with French club, Toulon.

He comes into the side as replacement for Ben Lam who played his 50th and final game for the Hurricanes on Saturday night, ahead of his move to Bordeaux.

Hurricanes head coach Jason Holland said Savea will add a lot of experience to his side.

“He’s been working pretty hard by the sounds of it. He’s played 100 games for the Hurricanes and he’s a big part of what’s happened here in the past. We are looking forward to the experience he can bring in for two weeks. He’ll help the boys along and compete in that outside back spot.”

The Hurricanes have a bye this week and Holland doesn’t expect to see Savea play against the Chiefs in round nine either, but he said, he’s keen to play some footy.

“We’ll see what happens,” said Holland.

“He hasn’t played much footy, he’s been training hard, but he’ll ease his way back into it.”

The news isn’t so great for Ngani Laumape and Fraser Armstrong, with both players out for the rest of the season with fractures. Holland said they will both require surgery this week.

“Ngani is an optimistic man. There’s hope he can be back playing footy in November, which will be nice for him to get back, but we’ll see how the operation goes.”

The Hurricanes will call upon more replacements in the coming days, with Gareth Evans also gone for the season. While standout midfielder Peter Umaga-Jensen is ok after suffering a head knock in their win over the Crusaders on Saturday night.