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Highlanders promote Japan star into starting lineup as Aaron Smith benched for Crusaders clash
The Highlanders have promoted Japan star Kazuki Himeno to their starting side for Friday’s Super Rugby Aotearoa clash against the Crusaders in Christchurch.
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Himeno was a standout off the bench for the Dunedin-based franchise in their 30-19 defeat to the Hurricanes last week, getting himself involved frequently and making a strong impact against tiring opponents.
The 26-year-old has been rewarded with a starting role for this week’s South Island derby after being named at No 8.
In doing so, he takes the place of Hawke’s Bay youngster Marino Mikaele-Tu’u, who has been listed by the Highlanders as unavailable, but not because of injury.
Star playmaker Josh Ioane has also fallen under this category, as has hard-hitting midfielder Patelesio Tomkinson, neither of whom have been named in the match day side despite playing prominent roles for the Highlanders this season.
As a result, last week’s first-five Mitch Hunt has retained his place in the No 10 jersey, while Connor Garden-Bachop has moved to fullback with Northland speedster Scott Gregory getting his first run of the year from the right wing.
Tomkinson’s place at second-five has been taken by Thomas Umaga-Jensen, who last week made a try-scoring return from a long injury lay-off that kept him out of Super Rugby action since 2019.
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Electric wing Jona Nareki, meanwhile, has been called back into the starting team after missing last week’s match due to a hip pointer injury, and halfback Folau Fakatava has snatched a starting role off co-captain Aaron Smith.
The change at No 9 comes after Smith became the Highlanders’ most-capped player of all-time against the Hurricanes, where he broke Ben Smith’s total of 153 appearances.
Aaron Smith, who re-signed with the Highlanders and New Zealand Rugby through until 2023, has been open about how he needs to be preserved until the next World Cup in France.
That has opened the door for the highly-promising Fakatava, who also recently extended his Highlanders contract by two years after being circled by rival clubs, to earn more substantial game time with the franchise, as evidenced by his promotion this week.
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On the bench, flanker Hugh Renton returns to the match day side to fill the void left by Himeno in the reserves, while Hawke’s Bay playmaker Caleb Makene is in line for his Super Rugby debut after being named at No 22 in the wake of Ioane’s unavailability.
Highlanders team to play Crusaders
1. Ethan de Groot
2. Ash Dixon (co-c)
3. Siate Tokolahi
4. Bryn Evans
5. Pari Pari Parkinson
6. Shannon Frizell
7. Billy Harmon
8. Kazuki Himeno
9. Folau Fakatava
10. Mitch Hunt
11. Jona Nareki
12. Thomas Umaga-Jensen
13. Michael Collins
14. Scott Gregory
15. Connor Garden-Bachop
Reserves:
16. Liam Coltman
17. Ayden Johnstone
18. Josh Hohneck
19. Josh Dickson
20. Hugh Renton
21. Aaron Smith (co-c)
22. Caleb Makene
23. James Lentjes
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 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!
3 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 …
30 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
3 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.
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 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.
30 Go to comments