Hurricanes

The Lions have lost their last eight games home and away to the New Zealand side, including a 20-3 defeat in last year's Super Rugby final in Wellington, and a humbling 50-17 home loss in the 2016 regular season.

That heavy defeat was the last time the South Africans were beaten at their Ellis Park fortress, amassing a winning run of 14 games since, that almost came to an end against the Sharks in the quarter-finals last weekend.

The Hurricanes' second five-eighth probably didn't begin the Super Rugby season as a huge topic of pre-match discussions. Flatten enough opponents, though, and coaches will suddenly circulate clip after clip of you to their charges.

Give Laumape the chance to take a defender one-on-one and there's only one winner. But such has been his form this year, that those odds haven't been in his favour for a while.

"I've been noticing that and us, as a team, we know what we need to do better," Laumape said ahead of Sunday's semifinal against the Lions in Johannesburg.

All Blacks hooker Coles will make his first start in more than four months in what will be his 100th game for the Hurricanes when he leads them on to Ellis Park to face the Lions on Sunday morning.

Having finally shaken off the concussion symptoms that ruled him out of the Test series against the British and Irish Lions, Coles returned off the bench against the Brumbies in Canberra last week.

He impressed in the 35-16 quarter-final win and pushes Ricky Riccitelli to the bench, while reclaiming the captain's armband from TJ Perenara.

Smith had four seasons with the Melbourne franchise after a successful spell with Chiefs, where he won two Super Rugby titles.

The 28-year-old, capped six times by the Wallabies, will now embark on a new challenge with the mighty Hurricanes.

"I'll always be grateful for my time in Australia and I have really enjoyed playing for the Melbourne Rebels, but when the opportunity to play for the Hurricanes came up it was very appealing to me." said Smith, whose parents are from New Zealand and brought him up in Hamilton. 

Coles has been out of the game since March, but played 30 minutes off the bench against the Brumbies last weekend.

Assistant coach John Plumtree says he's recovered well from that game.

"He's good to go - there's a good chance you'll see him start he's got his spark back and obviously it's a big game for him and a big game for the club this weekend."

It would be Coles' 100th Super Rugby game if he takes the field.

Meanwhile midfielder Vince Aso is also expected to return to the starting lineup after missing the quarter-final through injury.

It was far from a perfect performance from the defending champions as they struggled up front early and had to break down a rugged Brumbies defensive line to keep their hopes of back to back titles alive.

Though they come into the quarter-finals with the worst record of all the finalists, the Brumbies have been on the wrong end of some nail biters, losing seven games by less than seven points this season.

One of the exceptions to that statistic was a 56-21 loss to the Hurricanes in Napier, the team the Brumbies will host on a Friday night.

Despite that, Alaalatoa said the side's unity gave him unwavering confidence.

"We’ve been with each other for the whole year and know all the hard work that we’ve done and we know what we’re capable of when we’re on," he said.

Coles will come from the bench in his first match in four months, having suffered lingering concussion symptoms since copping a head knock against the Highlanders in round four.

That is a significant inclusion for the Canes but getting their star flyhalf back is of utmost importance.

Barrett missed the win against the Crusaders due to a sinus infection so to have him fit and firing come Friday night is a major boost for Hurricanes fans.

There is still no Vince Aso on the team sheet, which means Jordie Barrett will stay at outside centre.

Lealiifano will be the the ACT Brumbies' bench weapon in his first game since being diagnosed with leukaemia 11 months ago, as he lines up in the Super Rugby quarterfinal showdown at Canberra Stadium on Friday night.

His journey back to the field has touched players around the world, with livewire Hurricanes fullback Nehe Milner-Skudder saying it was "bloody inspiring" to see Lealiifano back on the field.

Lealiifano, who has been out of Super Rugby since being diagnosed with leukaemia ten months ago, had originally made his return in Brumbies colours during the team's Austbrokers Cup win over the Asia Pacific Dragons in Singapore in June and will be on the bench for the knockout tie.