1
Timoci Tavatavanawai and Rhys Patchell sign with Highlanders
The Highlanders have continued their run of exciting signings for 2024 by recruiting Moana Pasifika star Timoci Tavatavanawai and Welsh back Rhys Patchell.
ADVERTISEMENT
Tavatavanawai’s departure from a Moana Pasifika side he contributed so much to will leave a massive hole in the Moana squad but also makes way for the next generation of Pasifika talent.
Patchell was released by Welsh club Scarlets after the conclusion of their season and has followed in the footsteps of Freddie Burns by heading south on a one-year deal.
The signings contribute to what will be a new-look Highlanders outfit in 2024 after 16 players departed the club at the end of the 2023 season.
The Fijian winger Tavatavanawai has been an unstoppable force in his first two seasons in Super Rugby Pacific, beating the second-most defenders in 2023.
The 25-year-old thanked his former club for the opportunity and experience of representing his culture and expressed excitement at the opportunities to come; “It has been an incredible honour to represent my culture during my time with Moana Pasifika and I will always be grateful to the team that made my time there great,” he said. “I wish them all the best going forward.
“I am committing to the Highlanders next season and I look forward to new challenges and further growth with a team of great players and staff. It’s an exciting time to be a part of the Highlanders franchise and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Highlanders head coach Clarke Dermody is familiar with Tavatavanawai and the winger’s game and is anticipating a powerful impact from the physical winger.
“I have a connection with Timoci from when we were both with the Mako in the NPC and he has been an injury replacement for us in the past so he knows the club too and we are looking forward to him showing his skillset under the roof. His ability to get a team that all important forward momentum is second to none. His post-contact meters are excellent and he has the potential to be a real weapon on the edge for us and will complement the outside back skills we currently have in the squad nicely.
“I am grateful he has decided to join us.“
Patchell made his debut for Wales at fullback at 20 years old and has amassed 22 caps in total, the 30-year-old was an omission from Warren Gatland’s World Cup training squad.
“I’m delighted to be joining the Highlanders for the upcoming Super Rugby season,” he said. “The opportunity to head to Dunedin was too good to turn down.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Having watched Super Rugby from afar, I’m excited for the 2024 season to begin. I look forward to getting started and contributing as much as I can both on and off the field.”
Patchell can play the fullback position but has found most success at No 10, a position that has given the southern team some trouble over recent seasons. Regardless of where coach Dermody elects to play the veteran, Patchell’s experience will be invaluable to a young team that has secured the services of New Zealand U20 playmakers Cameron Millar and Ajay Faleafaga.
Tavatavanawai joins an increasingly exciting back three unit that includes All Blacks XV talents in Jona Nareki and Sam Gilbert as well as recent signing Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens.
Comments on RugbyPass
My heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
71 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
71 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to commentsThis is might be the most generalised, entitled, patronising, out-of-pocket cultural indictment on a group of people you’ll ever see on what is supposedly a sports publication. I can only assume the author is weak like a woman or homosexual. I’m feeling an incredible range of emotions but I am not quite sure how to express them. I might go beat up a hockey player - assuming that’s okay with Duane and the boys? 🙂
9 Go to commentsBest thing the Welsh clubs could do is apply to join Gallagher prem surely be more exciting matches for there support than they have now.
2 Go to commentsRugbyPass writers are useless! you guys should get a real job because you all suck at writing about rugby!!!
9 Go to comments