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Highlanders suffer midfield blow as centre Tomkinson to undergo surgery

(Photo by Dianne Manson/Getty Images)

The Highlanders have announced that outside back Patelesio Tomkinson will miss the entire 2022 Super Rugby Pacific season after succumbing to injury suffered in the NPC.

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The 25-year-old local product injured his left foot while playing for Otago during the Bunnings NPC Championship Final against Taranaki two weeks ago, which requires season-ending surgery.

Tomkinson will join explosive wing Jona Nareki on the sidelines in 2022 as the Highlanders look to continue to build under Tony Brown, who returned to the club in 2020 as an attack coach and now enters his second year as head coach.

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The former New Zealand age grade star has made 31 appearances for the Highlanders since debuting in 2017, playing across the backline in both midfield positions and on the wing without settling on one position.

His injury opens the door for the Highlanders young stable of backs to step up into the midfield. Former Crusader Fetuli Paea has made the move down south, along with second year prospect Ngatungane Punivai.

Thomas Umaga-Jensen, who has spent significant time on the sidelines since his debut since 2020 also shapes as another candidate along with Scott Gregory, who featured in the midfield this season after debuting on the wing last year.

2022 Super Rugby Pacific Highlanders Squad

Props: Ayden Johnstone, Ethan De Groot, Daniel Lienert-Brown, Jermaine Ainsley, Jeff Thwaites, Josh Hohneck, Saula Mau

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Hookers: Liam Coltman, Andrew Makalio, Rhys Marshall

Locks: Josh Dickson, Manaaki Selby-Rickit, Bryn Evans, Sam Caird

Loosies: Shannon Frizell, Gareth Evans, James Lentjes, Billy Harmon, Sean Withy, Max Hicks, Marino Mikaele Tu’u, Hugh Renton

Halfbacks: Aaron Smith, Folau Fakatava, Kayne Hammington

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First fives: Mitch Hunt, Marty Banks

Midfield: Thomas Umaga-Jensen, Ngatungane Punivai, Scott Gregory, Fetuli Paea

Outside backs: Mosese Dawai, Vilimoni Koroi, Josh Timu, Sam Gilbert, Connor Garden-Bachop, Solomon Alaimalo

Unavailable due to injury: Paripari Parkinson, Jona Nareki, Patelesio Tomkinson

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RedWarriors 3 hours ago
'Not a normal rugby team' - The Leinster flex that floored Jake White

I was actually at the match. Leinster were the outstanding team in the league stage. Leinster’s squad depth meant the Bulls could only nick a late win in Pretoria against an understrenght Leinster. Simple put, Leinster are significantly better this year compared to last. The Dublin match last year was a big win by Leinster. Yes they won by a point in the RDS three years ago but thats not relevant to yesterday.

As Leinster are such a dangerous team, it forces an opponent to focus on a strategy to undermine them and that way get their game on the pitch. Leinster allowed that against Northampton. But that was not going to happen again. The Bulls attack in last 10 minutes of the first half was as savage as anything in the URC this year. Yet Leinsters coaching plan repelled them allied to savage commitment from the players. The defense was outstanding, pressure at breakdown outstanding. Leinster did not win the European cup but arguably at their best this year no other European team could reach that height. They reached that yesterday. Leinster completely removed Bulls ability to hurt them.

And Croke Park….100 years ago the Brits fired machine guns into spectators injuring 100s and killing loads. No Irish team ever performs badly there. Same with Irish supporters. Opposition players might as well be Brit Tommies with machine guns.

I think a great Leinster team, played a great game plan, to the height of their power in a horrible stadium for opponents. If Bulls score before half time they were back in the match. They went down, but they went down fighting.

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