Highlanders:

1 Aki Seiuli, 2. Liam Coltman, 3. Siate Tokolahi, 4. Alex Ainley, 5. Tom Franklin, 6. Elliot Dixon, 7. Dillon Hunt, 8. Luke Whitelock
9 Aaron Smith, 10. Marty Banks, 11. Tevita Li, 12. Richard Buckman, 13. Malakai Fekitoa, 14. Waisake Naholo, 15. Ben Smith (cc)

Reserves:
16 Ash Dixon (cc), 17. Daniel Lienert-Brown, 18. Siosuia Halanukonuka, 19. Joe Wheeler, 20. Gareth Evans, 21. Kayne Hammington, 22. Lima Sopoaga, 23. Rob Thompson

Unavailable due to injury: Shane Christie, James Lentjes, Liam Squire, Greg Pleasants-Tate (Out for the season: Jason Emery, Hayden Parker)

Pulse Energy Highlanders named to play Waratahs in Dunedin

Ben Smith co-captain of the Pulse Energy Highlanders returns after a three week break for injury to play his record equalling 127th game for the Highlanders.

Smith stands beside former Highlanders captain Anton Oliver as the clubs most capped player. Also returning from injury is number eight Luke Whitelock meaning a shift for Elliot Dixon to the blindside while Aki Seiuli and Siate Tokolahi retain the starting spots in the front row.

Waisake Naholo returns on the right wing, replacing Patrick Osborne, after serving his one game suspension last week. The bench has an experienced look to it with regular starters Ash Dixon, Siosuia Halanukonuka, Daniel Lienert-Brown, Joe Wheeler, Lima Sopoaga and Rob Thompson all included.

Head Coach Tony Brown is delighted to be back home after three weeks on the road “it’s always good to be home under the roof in front of our home fans, especially after being away for so long. I know the players are all really looking forward to the challenge against a Waratahs side that includes so many Wallaby players, it should be a good contest.”

Good to see Ben Smith & Luke Whitelock back in the squad. Important for Smith to get some much needed game time ahead of the Lions tour. I'm surprised that Sopoaga is named on the bench instead of the starting XV, even though Banks has been good.

Clan by a THOWWWWWWWWSAND

Anyone else worried about this game? Waratahs looked OK last week and might be coming right. Potential banana skin I think.

@Damo I was a tad, but your post made me go back and look at the team. Fucken eh!

Dixon, Whitelock, Soaps, Smith, Thompson, DLB, Wheeler back. Hunt finding his feet finally and killing it. I'm more confident now...

Tahs will be dangerous on attack with both Folau and Foley in form and they are in a must win spot. However their defence has been seriously leaky all season long so can't see that changing tonight.

Welcome back Ben smith! Breaking tackles at will

That's a bit lucky. He looked offside to me. Thought so live as well.

That was a poor TMO decision.

Pretty weak defence by Elliot Dixon

Terrible forward pass missed in the phase beforehand?

But, flat out terrible effort by Elliot there. Holy fuck that was weak

Aaron Smith should stop trying to make those fancy behind-his-back passes. He did the same in one of the previous games and that one also went forward.

Stupidity from Smith there.

@Bovidae said in Highlanders v Waratahs:

That was a poor TMO decision.

What is the point of TMOs.

Wasted several minutes of our lives for a plain wrong decision. Wasn't even a hard one.

I'd be perfectly ok with the ref missing that in real time, and we just got in with it.

In looking whether Buckman was offside, which part of Luke Whitelock's body should they have looked at? Whitelock's left arm was stretched forward, so arguably his hand was in front of Buckman's foot. In that case, the TMO's decison was correct. But if they can only look at Whitelock's feet, there's room for doubt. There was no good camera angle though.

@Stargazer said in Highlanders v Waratahs:

In looking whether Buckman was offside, which part of Luke Whitelock's body should they have looked at? Whitelock's left arm was stretched forward, so arguably his hand was in front of Buckman's foot. In that case, the TMO's decison was correct. But if they can only look at Whitelock's feet, there's room for doubt. There was no good camera angle though.

ball is the offside line, isn't it?

Shut up Marshall you moron.

Good game of footy this.

Highlander's have been looking a bit out of ideas - bombs towards Folau are a pretty low percentage play, but they don't have much else other than passing it to B Smith and making meters