'Angry' Blues look to quell Hurricanes at the Cake Tin

The Blues can ill-afford a third successive defeat when the winless champions travel to face the Hurricanes for a blockbuster clash in the third round of Super Rugby Pacific on Saturday.

Humbled at home by the Chiefs and beaten away by the improving Highlanders, the Blues are mired at the bottom of the table and with a number of their All Blacks under scrutiny after a slow start.

Blues coach Vern Cotter backed his players to come good at Wellington Regional Stadium, making only one injury-forced change to his starting 15, with young lock Josh Beehre replacing Laghlan McWhannell.

FIERCE BATTLE EXPECTED

Five of the last six matches between the teams at the 'Cake Tin' have been decided by margins of less than 10 points, and Hurricanes assistant coach Cory Jane expects another fierce battle.

"They'll be angry and will come hard," he said.

"They want to play with more width and that may be the Beaudie (Beauden Barrett) effect, so they are challenging teams there as well as being dominant with their carries and cleans.

"It's a challenge."

Semifinalists last season, the Hurricanes recovered from an opening loss at the Crusaders to beat Fijian Drua in a high-scoring thriller in Napier last weekend.

Hurricanes coach Clark Laidlaw will give 21-year-old loose forward Peter Lakai his first start of the season at No 8, and fans will be excited to see what last year's All Blacks rookie can do.

Former Blue Kade Banks will also make his Hurricanes debut at fullback after managing only one game under Cotter last season.

The Chiefs play the earlier match on Saturday against the Brumbies in Hamilton and will look to continue their perfect start under Munster-bound coach Clayton McMillan.

McMillan named All Blacks hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho on the bench for his first match since being struck down by an Achilles injury in last year's semifinal win over the Hurricanes.

Stephen Larkham's Brumbies suffered a record 46-12 hiding by the Chiefs in Melbourne last March and will need to bring something different to Hamilton following a deflating home defeat by Western Force.

The Force, meanwhile, return to Perth where they will look for a third successive win against the Reds and continue their surprising early-season surge.

Simon Cron's Force missed last year's playoffs but have been marshalled superbly by flyhalf Ben Donaldson, who is battling Noah Lolesio for the Wallabies' number 10 jersey.

The Les Kiss-coached Reds, looking for back-to-back wins after starting the season with a bye, welcome back co-captain and flanker Liam Wright on the bench after his long recovery from shoulder surgery.

Wright captained Australia to victory over Wales last year but the rest of his test season was wiped out by the shoulder.

"It felt like a heavy fall from grace," Wright said.

"I'm just going to enjoy being back on the field again for all the minutes I get and keep working my way back to that same picture and go again."

Winless Moana Pasifika kick off the round at home against Jamie Joseph's Highlanders in the early match on Friday before Fijian Drua look for their first victory in Sydney against a New South Wales Waratahs team rested after a bye.