Officials
Referee: Ben O'Keeffe
AR1: Mike Fraser
AR2: James Doleman
TMO: Shane McDermott
Highlanders
Match thread
Jaguares
Liam Squire likely to feature - probably off the bench.
Highlanders
1 Ayden Johnstone
2 Liam Coltman
3 Siate Tokolahi
4 Josh Dickson
5 Tom Franklin
6 Luke Whitelock (c)
7 James Lentjes
8 Elliot Dixon*
9 Aaron Smith
10 Josh Ioane
11 Tevita Li
12 Patelesio Tomkinson
13 Rob Thompson
14 Jordan Hyland
15 Matt Faddes
Reserves
16 Ash Dixon
17 Daniel Lienert-Brown
18 Tyrel Lomax
19 Jack Whetton
20 Liam Squire
21 Kayne Hammington
22 Daniel Hollinshead
23 Thomas Umaga-Jensen
*100th Super Rugby game (101st game for the Highlanders)
An early kick-off (5.15pm) under the roof on Saturday will see the Highlanders host the Jaguares for the first time at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
There is some rotation in the forwards with Ayden Johnstone and Siate Tokolahi starting, while the hard-working Daniel Lienert-Brown and Tyrel Lomax head to the bench. Josh Dickson moves into the starting line-up and Liam Squire makes his return after a lengthy injury break.
In the backs, Matt Faddes, moves to fullback and Jordan Hyland will make his second appearance on the right wing. Patelesio Tomkinson will partner Rob Thompson in the midfield as Teihorangi Walden takes a break. Dan Hollinshead, who has joined the squad as a replacement for Bryn Gatland, will make his debut from the bench and the talented and young, Thomas Umaga-Jensen, rounds out the playing 23.
It is a significant milestone for hard running number eight Elliot Dixon. Dixon will play his 100th Investec Super Rugby game for the Highlanders. After making his debut in 2012 against the Brumbies, Dixon has featured in all positions in the back row – most memorably, scoring an amazing try against the Hurricanes to help the Highlanders to their 2015 title.
There’s a whiff of Lee Germon about Lucky Luke like this year - his much vaunted defence hasn’t been up to his usual standard yet he’s an automatic pick as captain.
@Stargazer pretty brave going in without a halfback.
@cgrant when players lose game time for no apparrant reason sometimes it’s because they have indicated to their franchise they are moving seen it before.Just throwing it out there is that the reason ? because it surprises me both have not had more game time .
I am sure there are some franchises who would be looking for a lock with some height in particular.
@Chris yeah Hunt should move to the Chiefs or even the Saders, he's a frikken AB and is simply a better player than Lentjes. It's bizarre he can't even get on the bench.
Parkinson is a tougher one - he's very young and the locks that have been playing, have been playing bloody well. He got more game time than I thought he would earlier in the season (but played well).
@cgrant said in Highlanders v Jaguares:
Hemopo and Franklin have been great, that's true. But what about Dickson who's got a lot more game time than Parkinson ?
Did I say all the locks except Dickson?
Clearly
I just realised he's been in Japan so his NPC performances were from a couple of years ago
That was classy from Ioane. Good long pass earlier too
He’s so far ahead of Black with ball in hand
fuck lucky the Jaguares let Dixon stand for so long doing nothing with his hands on the ball then rejoined the ruck...
That was some awful assistant ref work.
Camera angle shows ball go out about 10 metres out.
Assistant ref just gives it 5 metres out.
Cripes.
Probably the best game I've seen from Tomkinson with ball in hand. Even at NPC level, I've not seen him really attack like this.
@Duluth said in Highlanders v Jaguares:
Good start by the Jaguares
..and again
I expect they'll fade away again
Some really ugly holes being left 2-3 wide of the breakdown by the highlanders. So frustrating, it's just lazy defence, people not scanning.
With Lentjes going off, who's replacing him there? Mikaele-Tu'u can play 6 and 8, but I've never seen him at 7.
@KiwiMurph one of the big positives for the AB’s at the World Cup is they get to avoid all the NZ referees
@Duluth said in Highlanders v Jaguares:
@Duluth said in Highlanders v Jaguares:
Good start by the Jaguares
..and again
I expect they'll fade away again
They didn't. With a bit more luck, they could have drawn or even won.
Were the Jaguares hard done by the ref or were they being their normal ethnic soccer culture selves?
@KiwiMurph no he seriously is a Joke he always Refs one team not the Game