Highlanders hand Hurricanes hefty loss in pre-season action
Week two of the Super Rugby Pacific pre-season games saw the Hurricanes visit the Highlanders in Dunedin, with a game of three 30-minute blocks and over 30 players named to feature for each club.
The Highlanders embraced youth in an offseason where they lost half of their players, starting to filter in the first products from their new high-performance program while recruiting some promising youngsters from rival clubs.
The outing would be the Hurricanes’ first without Ardie Savea and Dane Coles as the All Black pair enjoy seasons in Japan, Savea is to return to the club in 2025 while Coles is set for retirement from the game.
A 52-19 victory for the hosts wasn’t what the Hurricanes would have expected, but the Highlanders showed the benefit of having one pre-season hit out already under their belt.
The Hurricanes were ambitious with their attack early, putting the ball through the hands with sweeping runs, but the Highlanders’ defence was patient and absorbed the attacking threats well.
There was a lack of execution with Brett Cameron missing touch and the Highlanders mishandling a lineout in the opening minutes, before the first big play of the game saw the Highlanders break the line from a lineout move. Recent Highlanders recruit Timoci Tavatavanawai went storming upfield and was chopped down past the 10-metre line.
The young Highlanders had a rhythm on attack, showing creativity with Folau Fakatava playing with attacking freedom. The hosts maintained a good pace at the breakdown en route to their first try, which was claimed by a rampaging Daniel Lienert-Brown. Sam Gilbert was handed the kicking duties and converted.
Duplessis Kirifi led the Hurricanes’ defence and very quickly established himself as a threat at every breakdown, which was needed given the trouble the Wellington team continued to have securing their own lineout.
Fakatava got on the board himself in the 20th minute, running a superb support line off fullback Connor Garden-Bachop who threaded the needle to find the halfback in space after shedding a couple of tackles.
The Highlanders were managing the game well, consistently finding their strong ball carriers in Renton and Tavatavanawai while utilising their secondary playmaker Sam Gilbert well in the midfield.
Brayden Iose got the Hurricanes on the front foot with a strong carry after play resumed, with the ball then finding James O’Reilly who crossed in the corner.
The opening 30-minute block came to an end with the Highlanders hitting a penalty.
Iose quickly made his mark in the second period as well, crashing over from close range in a strong albeit suspicious scoring effort.
A behind-the-back offload in contact from Rhys Patchell handed Billy Harmon an angle at the line, still with two players in front of him, Harmon powered through and got the ball down.
Tanielu Tele?a got his Highlanders career off to a strong start, running a strong support line and beating the last defender with ease. Tele’a would later produce a superb impersonation of a brick wall by absorbing the power of a charging Harry Godfrey right on the try line.
The Highlanders continued to find strong ball carriers in their reserve unit, with hulking prop Saula Ma’u contributing post-contact metres with most of his touches.
The structured nature of the game fell away as more substations entered the game and as the average age of the players dropped.
Garden-Bachop continued to probe and beat players for the Highlanders, while the Hurricanes midfield of Peter Umaga-Jensen and Billy Proctor was bruising and hard to escape on the defensive side of the ball.
Fabian Holland provided a giant frame for the Highlanders to hit at lineout time and impressed around the field with his strength and mobility.
On the wing, there was a small earthquake when Kini Naholo ran at Tavatavanawai, with the Highlanders recruit winning the play by opportunistically stealing the ball at the breakdown – not his only steal of the afternoon in that area.
Young first five-eighth Away Faleafaga looked composed for the Highlanders while the Hurricanes’ line out continued to be a shambles.
The Highlanders’ young front row was strong and their ball retention was efficient without the Hurricanes’ more prolific fetchers on the field. That helped pave the way for Jonah Lowe to score off a pick and go.
Jordi Viljoen, son of former Springbok, Roelof “Joggie” Viljoen, was energetic as halfback replacement for the Hurricanes, and fellow 2023 New Zealand U20 product Peter Lakai was busy in all aspects of the game once on the field.
Matt Whaanga was the next to score on a strong charge from five metres out, extending the Highlanders lead to 45-12 after Faleafaga converted.
The Hurricanes struck back minutes later as Kini Naholo was put in space by swift passing, he then handed the ball to Kyle Preston to run it in untouched.
The Hurricanes’ poor discipline kept handing the Highlanders favourable field position and Matt Whaanga again proved impossible to contain on another charge, this time from 10 metres out and running straight into covering forwards to bounce towards the try line.
Winning 52-19, the Highlanders showed they’ll be a fun team to watch in the coming season and certainly have some firepower coming through the ranks.
Comments on RugbyPass
“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
2 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
2 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
2 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
37 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
2 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
1 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
5 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
33 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
5 Go to comments