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Highlanders promote young pair for 2022 Super Rugby Pacific squad

(Photo by Kerry Marshall/Getty Images for the New Zealand Rugby Union)

The Highlanders have rewarded two of their most promising youngsters with full-time contracts for next year’s inaugural Super Rugby Pacific competition.

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20-year-old loose forward Sean Withy and 21-year-old prop Saula Ma’u have both signed on for the 2022 campaign to become the third and fourth new signings by the Highlanders over the off-season.

Promoting both players from the franchise’s high performance programme is an indication of the duo’s ability and potential as neither player boasts much experience at first-class level.

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After making his NPC debut for Otago last year, Withy has just four provincial appearances to his name, while injuries have also restricted Ma’u to four appearances off the bench in Otago colours since 2019.

However, while they are light on experience at professional level, both players have talent and promise in bucketloads.

Withy, for example, was a member of this year’s New Zealand U20 squad after being named Player of the Tournament as captain of the Highlanders U20 side in this year’s inaugural Super Rugby Aotearoa U20 competition.

Prior to that, the youngster was called into the senior Highlanders squad as injury cover in the early stages of the Super Rugby Aotearoa season by head coach Tony Brown, but wasn’t required to play.

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Similarly, Ma’u has long been a highly-touted prospect by the Highlanders since moving to Dunedin after finishing his schooling at Auckland Grammar.

Standing at 1.93m and 140kg, the tighthead prop was called into the 2019 New Zealand U20 squad despite being ineligible to play for the age-grade side until this year.

A knee injury robbed Ma’u the chance of joining Withy in representing the Baby Blacks on their domestic tour of New Zealand, but the identification of the former New Zealand Schools player at such a young age speaks volumes of his potential.

Like Withy, Ma’u has been involved with the Highlanders at senior level, having taken part in the franchise’s past two Super Rugby pre-seasons and was called into the squad as injury cover earlier this year.

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In a statement, both players said it was a “dream” to sign with the Highlanders, where they will be met with competition from the likes of Shannon Frizell, James Lentjes, Billy Harmon and Jermaine Ainsley for places in their respective positions.

“It’s a big thing for both myself and my family to be signing my first Super Rugby contract,” Ma’u said.

“I am so grateful for all the opportunities so many people have provided for me, I need to thank all those that have helped me reach my dream.

“Having injuries over the last few seasons has been hard but for now I am happy to be looking forward to the Super Rugby season.”

Sean Withy added: “It’s a dream come true for me, being a local boy I grew up watching the Highlanders, it’s been a goal mine for as long as I can remember. To have this opportunity now to actually be a Highlander and represent myself and my family is what it’s all about.”

Highlanders assistant coach Clarke Dermody said he has been impressed by both players since coming into the franchise’s set-up.

“We’ve seen these guys coming through our system over the last few years and they’ve quietly gone about learning all the things you require to achieve at the professional level,” he said.

“There is still plenty for them to work on of course as first year professionals but we believe the upper ceiling on these guys is quite high.”

The signings of Withy and Ma’u come after the Highlanders confirmed the returns of first-five Marty Banks and one-test All Blacks loose forward Gareth Evans, both of whom were part of the title-winning side of 2015.

Highlanders 2021-22 transfers

In: Marty Banks (Southland), Gareth Evans (Hurricanes), Sean Withy (Otago), Saula Ma’u (Otago)

Out: Josh Ioane (Chiefs), Ash Dixon (Green Rockets Tokatsu), Kazuki Himeno (Toyota Verblitz), Siate Tokolahi (Pau), Michael Collins (Ospreys), Jack Regan (Ospreys), Teariki Ben-Nicholas (Castres), Tim O’Malley (Zebre)

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fl 49 minutes ago
Ex-Wallaby laughs off claims Bath are amongst the best in the world

“Yes I wrote that, because you had Leinster as the best team in the world. What was that based on - winning the URC this season?”

It was based on Leinster’s performances over the course of this season, and on their trophy. If Bordeaux beat Toulouse then I’ll change my mind and move them to first. But as it is I expect Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Leinster to all finish with one trophy each, and with Leinster having produced the best week-on-week performances of the three.


“One of those teams won the league in each of those years so yes they were worse. If I was a fan of either of those four teams I would rather have been a fan of a team that won a trophy than didn’t.”

That’s true - I would too. With regard to Stormers I think their trophy was very much enabled by the fact that they weren’t playing in europe, so were able to rest their players much more than the non-SA teams were so I’m not sure whether I would or wouldn’t consider them to have had a better season than Leinster in 2022, but clearly Munster and Glasgow (respectively) had better seasons than Leinster in 2023 and 2024. But if I was a fan of one of those 3 teams I would rather be a fan of a team that won 66 URC+CC matches over the course of 3 seasons (Leinster) than a team that won 46 (Munster) or 42 (Glasgow). If you think trophies are literally the only thing that matters, do you think Blackburn Rovers are a more successful Premier League team than Tottenham Hotspur are?


“You contradict yourself alot. Trophies matter in one post and in the same post coming second consistently makes you better.”

Its going to get really frustrating if you’re not willing to read what I write. I said: “Trophies matter. They matter a lot. But so does winning games. So does making finals.” How does that contradict my assessment that Leinster were better than Stormers?


“I doubt Leinster would say they have been the better team in any of the seasons you keep going on about.”

Teams generally downplay talk of them being the best, so that wouldn’t surprise me. But crucially I don’t think Leinster were the best team in 2022, or in 2023, or in 2024, so I’m not sure what you think you’re responding to.


“Lets make it clear though - you are the one who went on and on about previous seasons with your deep dive into la Rochelle and Stormers etc.”

Yeah - I did that because you brought up Leinster’s trophyless record from 2022-2024, so I thought that was worth responding to. If you’d like though I can stop responding to the things you say?

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