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Highlanders put Aaron Smith back into starting side for Blues clash
The Highlanders have brought captain Aaron Smith back into their starting lineup for their Super Rugby Pacific round four clash against the Blues in Albany on Friday.
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The decision reinstate Smith back into the No 9 jersey comes after head coach Tony Brown expressed his frustrations with last week’s dire 21-14 loss to the Hurricanes in Wellington, a result that keeps the Highlanders winless this season.
Brown made particular note of the below-par efforts of halfback Folau Fakatava, who he said must “learn not to take everyone on by himself” and “do his job better”.
As such, Fakatava has dropped to the bench in place of Smith as part of five changes made to the starting lineup by Brown.
Four of those alterations – including change of personnel at halfback – come in the backline, where young rookie Mosese Dawai has been recalled into the starting team having last featured in the season-opener against the Chiefs.
In that match, Dawai endured a horror Super Rugby Pacific debut and was subsequently culled at half-time, with Brown later detailing his plans to further develop the 23-year-old in training before putting him back out on the park.
It seems now that Brown has seen enough in Dawai’s progression and development as a footballer to thrust him back into the starting XV, where he lines up on the left wing and forces last week’s debutant Liam Coombes-Fabling into the No 14 jersey.
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“Moses had a tough debut in difficult conditions in Queenstown and we just needed to give him time to get his confidence back,” Brown said in a statement.
“We feel he is back to where he should be and are looking forward to getting him out there and showing everyone what he can do.”
The reshuffled backline has resulted in the omission of Sam Gilbert, who had featured in every Highlanders match this season, as had centre Fetuli Paea, who has also been dropped in favour of Scott Gregory.
In the forward pack, Marino Mikaele-Tu’u earns his first start of the campaign at No 8, which has led to Gareth Evans shifting to openside flanker and Hugh Renton moving to the bench.
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The only other change in the starting side comes in the second row, where lock Manaaki Selby-Rickit is rewarded for his barnstorming cameo appearance last week to start alongside Josh Dickson.
As a result, Bryn Evans has dropped to the bench, where he and Renton are two of four new faces, with replacement tighthead prop Josh Hohneck coming back into the No 18 jersey after missing out to debutant Saula Ma’u last week.
Elsewhere, Ngatungane Punivai will make his first appearance of the year from the No 23 jersey as he fills the void left by Gregory.
Kick-off for Friday’s match at North Harbour Stadium is scheduled for 7:05pm.
Highlanders team to play the Blues
1. Ethan de Groot
2. Liam Coltman
3. Jermaine Ainsley
4. Manaaki Selby-Rickit
5. Josh Dickson
6. Shannon Frizell
7. Gareth Evans
8. Marino Mikaele-Tu’u
9. Aaron Smith (c)
10. Mitch Hunt
11. Mosese Dawai
12. Thomas Umaga-Jensen
13. Scott Gregory
14. Liam Coombes-Fabling
15. Connor Garden-Bachop
Reserves
16. Rhys Marshall
17. Daniel Lienert-Brown
18. Josh Hohneck
19. Bryn Evans
20. Hugh Renton
21. Folau Fakatava
22. Marty Banks
23. Ngatungane Punivai
Comments on RugbyPass
An 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!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 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.
24 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.
24 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 commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
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