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Highlanders pivot Bryn Gatland's season over after horror foot injury
If you had hopes of Bryn Gatland becoming a long-shot replacement for the injured Damian McKenzie in the All Blacks‘ World Cup squad, you can wipe those hopes out.
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The 23-year-old first-five has suffered his own season-ending injury after coming off the bench during the Highlanders’ 52-0 thumping of the Sunwolves in Tokyo last Friday.
Gatland replaced Josh Ioane around the 60th minute of the contest, but was helped off the field by teammates in obvious discomfort towards the end of the match with a painful-looking foot injury.
Four days have since passed, and Highlanders assistant coach Mark Hammett has confirmed on Tuesday the former Blues playmaker’s debut season with the franchise has come to an end as he has been ruled out of action for six months.
“He’s got a pretty major foot injury so he’s out for the season,” Hammett said.
“That’s the one big blight on the weekend.
“He’s broken at least two of the metatarsals, done his ligaments and displaced something, so it’s not very good and he’ll definitely be in for an operation.”
Gatland’s injury adds to the strain being felt by the Highlanders in the first-five department, with veteran Marty Banks still a fortnight away from returning to action after breaking his foot against the Hurricanes four weeks ago.
Highlanders head coach Aaron Mauger told Stuff last week that outside back Josh McKay could be utilised as a potential playmaking option in the absence of Banks and Gatland, while Bay of Plenty first-five Dan Hollinshead has been called into the squad as injury cover.
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His status with the team will be evaluated on a week-by-week basis.
The call-up leaves Hollinshead, who has spent time in France and Japan with Agen and Coca-Cola Red Sparks, respectively, as an outside chance to feature against the Chiefs in Dunedin this weekend.
However, with such limited preparation, McKay, who played at first-five during his schoolboy days at Christchurch Boys’ High School and New Zealand Schools, as well as for the Highlanders Bravehearts earlier this year, could be considered as the preferred option.
“He [Hollinshead] only arrived today [Tuesday] so we’ll let him get into the environment and get his feet settled and we’ll probably have a better idea over the next few days,” Hammett said.
Meanwhile, the return of injured All Blacks duo Liam Squire and Waisake Naholo for this weekend’s clash were labelled “unlikely” by Hammett, but he said he was hopeful of the pair returning for next week’s home match against the Jaguares.
“We’ll see where we get to by the end of this week,” Hammett said.
“We’ve got to be careful. We’ve got positions where it would be nice to have guys back and we’ve got positions where we’re actually going not too bad but we do have to be careful.
“It’s been really frustrating for him [Squire] but the first things is to get yourself right first, so that’s been his focus.
“Because the guy’s such an intuitive rugby player once he is back he’ll be ready, there’s never a concern about that.
“It’s more about keeping your spirits up because when you love the game the way he does and play like he does that’s what you want to do.”
In other news:
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Comments on RugbyPass
Je 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
1 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 Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments