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Highlanders player ratings vs Hurricanes | Super Rugby Pacific
The Highlanders have suffered their third-straight loss of the 2022 Super Rugby Pacific season, going down to the Hurricanes 21-14 in Wellington.
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It was a scrappy affair with neither side managing to hold onto possession for any extend periods of time. While the Highlanders managed to get their attack functioning better in the second half, individual errors handed the Hurricanes some relatively straightforward tries.
As a whole, it was a muted performance from the visitors in Wellington and coach Tony Brown will be pondering whether there are any personnel changes that can help stop the rot ahead of next weekend’s fixture with the Blues.
How did the Highlanders perform in their defeat?
1. Ethan de Groot – 7.5
Solid as a house at scrum time. Had a few nice carries but got caught running upright at times. Has a big frame, needs to make the most of it. A busy tackler in the first half. Off in 45th minute.
2. Liam Coltman – 6.5
No issues at lineout time, hitting every single one of his targets. Some nice back-to-back effort on attack late in the first stanza and was generally happy to carry. Penalised once for not rolling away from the tackle. Off in 59th minute.
3. Jermaine Ainsley – 6.5
Continues to impress with his tidy work around the park but left much of the carrying to his teammates. One cog in a strong Highlanders set-piece. Off in 65th minute.
4. Bryn Evans – 6
Secured a breakdown turnover early in the second quarter when the Hurricanes were looking interested. Useful at lineout time. Offered little with ball in hand but hit plenty of breakdowns when the Highlanders had possession. Off in 51st minute.
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5. Josh Dickson – 6.5
Biggest contribution was scoring a very well-taken try but otherwise faded into the background. Forced the Hurricanes to infringe at the breakdown early after getting over the ball. Stripped during his first carry of the match.
6. Shannon Frizell – 6.5
Busy on both attack and defence in the opening exchanges. Penalised for a double movement when the Highlanders were close to the try line. Some nice work from the second-half kick-off earned the Highlanders prime attacking ball. Handy at lineout time, managing one steal.
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7. Hugh Renton – 4
Busy on defence but not a great day at the office overall. Penalised twice in the first quarter, once for a bad intercept attempt and once for not releasing the tackled player at the breakdown. Fell off a relatively straightforward tackle on Pouri Rakete-Stones, giving the big prop the space he needed to run 20 metres for the Hurricanes’ first try. Off in 45th minute.
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8. Gareth Evans – 5.5
A quiet game from the former All Black. Cost his team possession twice in the first half. Secure at lineout time but certainly not a dynamic performance.
9. Folau Fakatava – 4
A long way off the form he showed for the Highlanders at the beginning of 2021 but that’s no surprise given he’s only recently returned from injury. Caught more than once around the base of the ruck and gave dicey service to the men around him. Did throw one lovely inside ball to Liam Coombes-Fabling for the winger’s linebreak in the first half. Earned his side a breakdown penalty moments later but then was pinged himself for sealing off from the ensuing possession. Off in 40th minute.
10. Mitch Hunt – 5
Looked good when the Highlanders had momentum on attack but that was especially rare during Hunt’s time on the field. Shuffled the ball on the rest of the time. Missed touch with a penalty kick shortly before halftime. Off in 51st minute.
11. Liam Coombes-Fabling – 4
Had a few yips early with play not really flowing his way but made a nice break into the Hurricanes’ 22 at the start of the second quarter. Dropped a kick-pass from Marty Banks that would’ve certainly resulted in a try had it been taken. Did some good work under the high ball.
12. Thomas Umaga-Jensen – 8
Broke through two tackles to set up the Highlanders’ first attack inside the Hurricanes’ 22 and caused problems for the Hurricanes all evening. Looked good with ball in hand, capable of busting a tackle or two even from a standing start.
13. Fetuli Paea – 7
Prominent with the ball, managing 50 metres worth of carries. Caught flat-footed on defence by Bailyn Sullivan in the build-up to the Hurricanes’ second try. Off in 57th minute.
14. Sam Gilbert – 5
Popped up all over the park but didn’t offer much in the way of incisiveness. Penalised for killing the breakdown late in the first half.
15. Connor Garden-Bachop – 7.5
Made some nice darts from the backfield, looked much better this week after a quiet game against the Chiefs. The Highlanders’ most dangerous ball-carrier. One bad miskick.
Reserves:
16. Rhys Marshall – 7
On in 59th minute. A very good cameo off the pine, making plenty of carries late in the game.
17. Dan Lienert-Brown – 6
On in 45th minute. Helped his side dominate the Hurricanes’ scrum as soon as he entered the fray.
18. Saula Ma’u – 6.5
On in 65th minute. Nice carry and offload with his first touch and looked secure at scrum time.
19. Manaaki Selby-Rickit – 7.5
On in 51st minute. Looked great off the bench, adding plenty of impact. Showed good awareness to nab a loose ball and score the Highlanders’ first try and carried with vigour.
20. Marino Mikaele-Tu’u – 5
On in 45th minute. Couldn’t hold his teammate’s offload and coughed up possession with his first touch. Got involved but lacked accuracy at times.
21. Aaron Smith – 7
On in 40th minute. Upped the tempo as soon as joined the game and the Highlanders looked much deadlier with Smith serving up the ball.
22. Marty Banks – 6
On in 51st minute. Tried to get the attack going and was more aggressive than Hunt. Put in a nice kick-pass for Coombes-Fabling with his first real touch of the match. Dropped the ball cold on attack moments later. Nailed his two shots at goal.
23. Scott Gregory – 5.5
On in 57th minute. Continued Paea’s work on attack but was well-beaten on the outside by Peter Umaga-Jensen, handing the Hurricanes their third try.
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
29 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to comments