Chiefs

The Blues were their own worst enemies as the Chiefs beat them again with a resounding six-try victory in Hamilton.

Steven Luatua has nobody to blame but himself and he knows it, after his red card just before half-time reduced the Blues to 14 men in Friday night's Battle of the Bombays clash, which the Chiefs won 41-26.

They've done so again for Friday night's highly anticipated Battle of the Bombays encounter against the Blues in Hamilton, with Michael Leitch back in the fold.

The back row has re-shuffled from the round one win over the Highlanders, with Leitch starting at No 8 and shifting Liam Messam to blindside flanker in place of Taleni Seu.

Sam Cane's continued absence (ankle) sees Lachlan Boshier take the No 7 jersey from Mitch Karpik, who drops out of the squad with Mitchell Brown, while Tom Sanders is promoted to the bench.

However they have named six All Blacks, a Maori All Black and a New Zealand Under-20s player on the reserves bench.

Lock Jimmy Tupou will again lead the Blues.

Last week the Bues scored seven tries in their 56-18 opening round win over the Rebels in Melbourne.

The backline, with an average age of just 24 years, took their chances with the front-foot ball to get a further chance, with centre Rieko Ioane bagging a hat-trick of tries and first five Ihaia West moving past the 300 point mark for the Blues.

Prop Siate Tokolahi and winger Tevita Li start, while Adrian Smith, Guy Millar and Kayne Hammington are in the reserves.

Coach Tony Brown will start all his All Blacks apart from Elliot Dixon who will make his impact from the bench.

They'll field an impressive backline of Aaron Smith, Lima Sopoaga, Tevita Li, Rob Thompson, Malakai Fekitoa, Waisake Naholo and Ben Smith.

"The recent games against the Chiefs have been cracking games and we expect nothing less this week, the guys are really looking forward to getting out in front of our home fans" said Brown.

Halfback Brad Weber and prop Mitchell Graham will miss the entire 2017 Super Rugby season with respective broken legs.

It's understood Weber has undergone surgery after fracturing his femur (thigh bone) in his side's 12-5 win over the Crusaders in the final on Sunday evening and his estimated recovery time is a minimum of six months. Graham was also been sidelined for a similar period after fracturing his tibia and fibula, which requires surgery.

The Coventry-based side have invested heavily during the close-season and the returning Danny Cipriani was among the starting XV at the Ricoh Arena.

But Thomas Waldrom, the Premiership's top try scorer last season, and Will Chudley scored tries while Henry Slade contributed seven points to leave 2015-16 runners-up Exeter 17-8 in front by the break.

Jimmy Gopperth's try had kept Wasps in it, though, and he added seven from the tee in the second half, while scores from Dan Robson and debutant Tommy Taylor completed the turnaround.

Hurricanes first five Barrett was at his mercurial best as he set up the opening try.

After regathering his own chip-kick, the All Black ran cross-field around the defence, before off-loading on the 5m line to the try-scorer, Willis Halaholo.

Dane Coles injured a rib in the Hurricanes 41-nil win over the Sharks, while Chiefs co-captain Sam Cane took a knock to the head in their 60 points to 21 win over the Stormers.

Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd isn't confident about Coles' chances of playing.

"He's got a rib injury and is in a lot of pain so the doctor will do whatever he can and we should know more in the next 24 hours, but it doesn't look good."

However Boyd feels good about the cover they have at hooker.

The Chiefs, who outscored the South Africans by eight tries to three, now travel home to meet the top-ranked Hurricanes in Wellington next weekend. The Lions host the Highlanders in the other semi in Johannesburg.

The Chiefs built a 20-point lead by halftime at Newlands as they caught out the hosts with pace and quick movement of the ball.

With All Black Seta Tamanivalu out with a knee injury, Anton Lienert-Brown moves out one to take the number 13 jersey with Donald inside him.

Brad Weber and Aaron Cruden are the halves.

In all there are six changes from the side that lost to the Highlanders last weekend.

In the forwards the tight five remains the same, while in the loose forwards, Tom Sanders moves to the back of the scrum with Taleni Seu to start at blindside flanker. Sam Cane will lead the pack in jersey seven.

Sam McNicol is promoted from the bench to start in jersey 14.