New Zealanders often joke about their South Island brethren, particularly those from Canterbury, being one-eyed when it comes to their rugby and Nasi Manu is to give a graphic illustration of the old gag in today’s Super Rugby final.
The Otago Highlanders co-captain, who played for Canterbury and the Crusaders before moving to Dunedin, is to lead his side out against the Hurricanes in Wellington with his right eye virtually closed over.
“I can see and training yesterday was good,” Manu told Fairfax Media yesterday. “The muscle [in the eye lid] has stopped working, it doesn’t want to open. It won’t stop me from playing. It is not much of an injury.”
Photo: AP
The 26-year-old No. 8 was forced off during the 35-17 semi-final win against the New South Wales Waratahs last week with the eye swollen shut and initial fears were that he might not be able to play the final.
It will be Manu’s last match for the Highlanders before he joins Scottish club side Edinburgh, but there will be no time for sentiment in the maelstrom of an all-New Zealand Super Rugby final.
“I am trying not to think about it too much,” Manu said. “It is just exciting to be able to play a final in my last game [for the team]. It is not about me. I just hope I can do well out there for the boys.”
Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph named an unchanged starting team for the final, although he has beefed up the contingent of forwards on the bench by opting for a 5-2 split.
Japan scrumhalf Fumiaki Tanaka and utility Marty Banks, who played for the Hurricanes last season, were the only backs named on the bench, suggesting Joseph is expecting to need to stiffen the pack in the final stages of the game.
“The win in Sydney was physical, but the guys have recovered a lot quicker than the previous week ... guys are fresh and ready, understand the challenge ahead and are really looking forward to it,” Joseph told reporters. “There are a lot of similarities with the way we play, we like to move the ball. We have a slightly different approach to some areas of the game.”
“Is it going to be a tactical battle? I think it could be, but not as much, necessarily, as last week because we are similar,” he said.
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