Beauden Barrett has retained his place at flyhalf in the Blues team selected to face the Highlanders in a Super Rugby Aotearoa clash in Dunedin on Sunday.
Barrett enjoyed a long-awaited start at 10 last weekend, and looked far more comfortable in his preferred position after starting the competition playing at fullback.
Blues head coach Leon MacDonald has opted to keep Barrett at flyhalf, with Otere Black remaining on the bench as Matt Duffie keeps his place at fullback, while the wait for Dan Carter’s Blues debut goes on.
MacDonald has named the same 23 players that featured in the win over the Chiefs in Auckland last weekend, with the only swap coming in the front row where Karl Tu’inukuafe trades places with Alex Hodgman.
Kick-off is at 05:35 (SA time).
Blues – 15 Matt Duffie, 14 Mark Telea, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 TJ Faiane, 11 Caleb Clarke, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Finlay Christie, 8 Akira Ioane, 7 Blake Gibson, 6 Dalton Papalii, 5 Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, 4 Patrick Tuipulotu (c), 3 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 2 Kurt Eklund, 1 Karl Tu’inukuafe.
Subs: 16 Luteru Tolai, 17 Alex Hodgman, 18 Sione Mafileo, 19 Josh Goodhue, 20 Tony Lamborn, 21 Sam Nock, 22 Otere Black, 23 Harry Plummer.
