Flanker Richie McCaw of the All Blacks will lead the Canterbury Crusaders in their Super 12 rugby semifinal against the Wellington Hurricanes at Christchurch tomorrow.
McCaw signaled his recovery from a serious head injury, sustained five weeks ago, when he came off the bench to play briefly in the Crusaders' last regular season match -- also against the Hurricanes -- last week.
He was confirmed in the Crusaders' starting lineup Wednesday, taking the place of Johnny Leo'o who scored two tries in the win over the Hurricanes.
All Blacks center Casey Laulala has missed selection for the match because of a hamstring strain. Caleb Ralph will play at center, inside winger Rico Gear, whose two tries against the Hurricanes last week helped him equal Australian Joe Roff's record of 14 tries in a Super 12 season.
Goalkicking flyhalf Daniel Carter returns to the starting lineup, displacing All Blacks veteran Andrew Mehrtens, who drops to the reserves bench.
The Crusaders have named an all-All Blacks front row with Dave Hewett returning at loosehead and Greg Somerville moving to tighthead, flanking hooker Corey Flynn.
The Hurricanes Wednesday omitted Conrad Smith from their starting lineup, as the All Blacks failed to overcome a head injury he sustained in a clash of heads last week with Ralph.
Tane Tuipulotu will take Smith's place, playing outside All Blacks captain Tana Umaga who returns to the starting lineup.
Chris Masoe replaces Ben Herring on the open-side flank and All Blacks loose forward Jerry Collins returns on the blindside.
Neemia Tialata will hold up the tighthead side of the scrum, Tony Penn will play loosehead and veteran Gordon Slater was included on the bench in the absence of Tim Fairbrother who has a shoulder injury.
Slater, a former Hurricanes captain, played his last Super 12 match in 2002.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
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