Captain Conrad Smith and hooker Danes Coles return from injury to boost the Hurricanes for their Super Rugby clash with the Brumbies in Canberra on Friday.

Smith is back after being knocked out making a tackle during the Hurricanes’ 48-14 loss to the Bulls three weeks ago, while Coles returns from seven weeks out with a fractured eye socket.

Joining Smith and Coles in the starting line-up are James Broadhurst and Brad Shields, while Reynold Lee-Lo moves in one spot to inside centre to make way for Smith.

Ash Dixon will be on the bench as back-up hooker, while Mark Reddish comes into the reserves alongside Faifili Levave, who swaps places with Shields this week.

Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett says there were some tough calls in making his selections this week.

“Rey has worked hard in the past few weeks, stepping up in Conrad’s absence so he gets another opportunity in the midfield.

“We also get an opportunity to give James a start with Jeremy in the locking combination. Jason has played a lot of minutes this year and Broady has had some solid performances off the bench.”

Jack Lam, who took a knock to his knee in training earlier this week, will start as long as he comes through training on Wednesday.

Hurricanes: Andre Taylor, Alapati Leiua, Conrad Smith, Reynold Lee-Lo, Julian Savea, Beauden Barrett, TJ Perenara, Victor Vito, Jack Lam, Brad Shields, James Broadhurst, Jeremy Thrush, Ben May, Dane Coles, Ben Franks. Res: Ash Dixon, Reggie Goodes, Mark Reddish, Faifili Levave, Chris Smylie, Tusi Pisi, James Marshall.