Blues and Brumbies to meet in a pivotal Super Rugby Pacific showdown; Fijians host the Hurricanes

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The Blues and the Brumbies will attempt to show off their playoff credentials in a pivotal contest Saturday in Super Rugby Pacific.

The Auckland-based Blues and Canberra-based Brumbies share second place on the championship standings, three points behind the unbeaten Hurricanes with matching 6-1 records.

If one team has a built-in advantage on Saturday, it is the Blues who are unbeaten in their last nine matches at home. The Blues have scored 110 points in three home matches so far in 2024, conceding only 19 points. Their only away loss so far has been to the Hurricanes.

The Blues also have the best defensive record in the tournament with only 95 points conceded in seven games. The Brumbies are third on defensive standings behind the Blues and Hurricanes but having conceded 50 points more than the Blues.

At the same time, the Brumbies' successful start to the season is qualified by the fact that only one of their six wins has come against a New Zealand opponent — a 27-21 over the Dunedin-based Highlanders in Round 4. Their only other match against a New Zealand team resulted in a 46-12 loss to the Hamilton-based Chiefs.

But the Brumbies are a hard nut to crack when they play their own game based on a solid set piece and the ball-running abilities of players such as Rob Valetini. The Brumbies also will be strengthened by the return after a short absence of captain Ryan Lonergan.

“Clearly the Brumbies are tracking really well this season,” Blues coach Vern Cotter said. “They’ve been impressive both offensively and defensively and will be a handful.

“We’re locked together on points, we’ve won the same number of games and whoever wins on Saturday will claim outright second on the points table. It’s a big match."

The Blues also have a returning captain — Patrick Tuipulotu will start at lock — while Mark Telea also returns, having scored five tries this season.

The Wellington-based Hurricanes will put their unbeaten record on the line in Suva against the Fijian Drua who are unbeaten at home.

The Drua have beaten the Crusaders, the Western Force and the New South Wales Waratahs in Lautoka so far this season and beat the Hurricanes in Round 11 last year. But Friday’s match will be played in Suva, where the Drua’s record last season was not quite as strong.

“We understand the challenge. We know the atmosphere we’re going to get in Suva,” Hurricanes coach Clark Laidlaw said. “They love their rugby and I think it might be the Drua’s only game across in Suva this season.

“We’re well aware of what we’re walking into but can we deal with it? No other team has yet this year and there’s only one team that’s won there in eight or nine attempts in Fiji. It’s a big challenge, it’s probably as big as it gets.”

The Drua are without scrumhalf Frank Lomani, who has been banned for six weeks for elbowing a Melbourne Rebels player in the head, and prop Jone Koroiduadua, who has been suspended after an attempted head butt in the same match.

Drua head coach Mick Byrne believes is team has the depth to overcome those absences.

"It has given us a bit of a direction in our selections for this week,” Byrne said. “We’ve always trained well as a full squad and everyone has got the ability to step up and make the most of this opportunity.”

AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby

FILE - Australian skills coach Mick Byrne is seen during a training session in Christchurch, New Zealand, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017. Drua head coach Byrne has been hired to guide the Fijian national men’s rugby team as part of an agreement which could see Fiji play in the upcoming Nations Championship. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)

Lalakai Foketi of the Waratahs, center, is tackled by Harrison Goddard of the Brumbies during their Super Rugby Pacific Round 7 match in Canberra, Australia, Saturday, April 6, 2024. (Lukas Coch/AAP Image via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein is due back in a New York courtroom Wednesday for his first appearance since an appeals court last week overturned his 2020 rape conviction and ordered a new trial.

The preliminary hearing in Manhattan is expected to include discussion of evidence, scheduling and other matters, according to Weinstein's attorney, Arthur Aidala.

Aidala said Weinstein will attend the hearing, despite the 72-year-old having been hospitalized since shortly after his return to the city jail system on Friday from an upstate prison. He has said Weinstein, who has cardiac issues and diabetes, was undergoing unspecified tests due to his health issues.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has said it is determined to retry the case against Weinstein. Legal experts say that may be a long road and come down to whether the women he's accused of assaulting are willing to testify again. One of the women, Mimi Haley, said Friday she was still considering whether she would testify at any retrial.

Aidala said Saturday that he plans to tell the judge that he believes a trial could occur any time after Labor Day.

The once-powerful studio boss was also convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and is still sentenced to another 16 years in prison in California.

In the New York case that is now overturned, he was convicted of rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actor in 2013, and of forcing himself on Haley, a former “Project Runway” production assistant, in 2006. Weinstein had pleaded not guilty and maintained any sexual activity was consensual.

The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named, as Haley has.

On Thursday, the New York Court of Appeals vacated his conviction in a 4-3 decision, erasing his 23-year prison sentence, after concluding a trial judge permitted jurors to see and hear too much evidence not directly related to what he was charged with.

The ruling shocked and disappointed women who celebrated historic gains during the era of #MeToo, a movement that ushered in a wave of sexual misconduct claims in Hollywood and beyond.

FILE - Harvey Weinstein arrives at a Manhattan courthouse as jury deliberations continue in his rape trial in New York, on Feb. 24, 2020. Weinstein will appear in a New York City court on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)