Officials

Referee: Ben O'Keeffe
AR1: Mike Fraser
AR2: James Doleman
TMO: Shane McDermott

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.

@Nepia yeah he's been pretty poke this year, needs a significant improvement to even be in consideration for black.

@Stargazer pretty brave going in without a halfback.

Dillon Hunt and Pari Pari Parkinson are missing from the Highlanders' lineup for a while now. Are they injured or just punished for bad performances ?

@cgrant Moving franchises ???

What do you mean ?

@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).

Hemopo and Franklin have been great, that's true. But what about Dickson who's got a lot more game time than Parkinson ?

@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?

Daniel Hollinshead

Good enough for SR? I can't recall him standing out for BOP?

@Duluth I think we're running out of experienced 10s ...

@Stargazer

Clearly

I just realised he's been in Japan so his NPC performances were from a couple of years ago

Good start by the Jaguares

Pretty aimless kicking from the Landers so far.

That try was all on Ioane!