The Highlanders will be without Aaron Smith for the first game of their two-match tour of Australia as he mourns the death of his father.
Smith’s father, Wayne, died on Friday and Smith will remain in New Zealand this week as the Highlanders head to Perth on Tuesday
Smith’s absence could leave the Highlanders without their top two halfbacks for the Force game, with Folau Fakatava understood to be ill
@Kiwiwomble said in Force v Highlanders:
i'll admit i have missed we play the force twice....
How is that the case? I thought New Zealand teams could only play their Australian counterparts once?
@Canes4life yeah, feels weird
@Canes4life said in Force v Highlanders:
@Kiwiwomble said in Force v Highlanders:
i'll admit i have missed we play the force twice....
How is that the case? I thought New Zealand teams could only play their Australian counterparts once?
Not exactly.
The wording for the 3 extra games (the 3 teams you play twice) is 'rivalry game'.
In practice it's nearly all domestic but not entirely
The 2023 draw will see all 12 teams play a total of 14 matches during the regular season, 11 round-robin fixtures plus three additional rivalry matches which will see each team play a home and away series against three other teams.
As per the media release when the draw was announced. You would assume (hope) that the rivalry matches are rotated each year to ensure more fairness.
Rivalry matches: Each team plays three teams twice (one at home match, one away match per rivalry)
· Blues: Rivalry opponents are the Hurricanes, Highlanders and Crusaders
· Chiefs: Rivalry opponents are the Crusaders, Hurricanes and Highlanders
· Crusaders: Rivalry opponents are the Blues, Chiefs and Moana Pasifika
· Highlanders: Rivalry opponents are the Blues, Force and Chiefs
· Hurricanes: Blues, Chiefs and Moana Pasifika
· Moana Pasifika: Hurricanes, Highlanders and Fijian Drua
· Fijian Drua: Moana Pasifika, Reds and Waratahs
· Force: Highlanders, Reds and Rebels
· Reds: Fijian Drua, Force and Brumbies
· Rebels: Force, Waratahs and Brumbies
· Waratahs: Fijian Drua, Rebels and Brumbies
· Brumbies: Reds, Rebels and Waratahs
@KiwiMurph that famous Perth v Dunedin rivalry....grrrrrr shakes fist
@Kiwiwomble said in Force v Highlanders:
@KiwiMurph that famous Perth v Dunedin rivalry....grrrrrr shakes fist
Well in fairness, they might have been trying to do the Highlanders/the competition a favour given their form against other NZ teams.....
@KiwiMurph said in Force v Highlanders:
@Kiwiwomble said in Force v Highlanders:
@KiwiMurph that famous Perth v Dunedin rivalry....grrrrrr shakes fist
Well in fairness, they might have been trying to do the Highlanders/the competition a favour given their form against other NZ teams.....
Or trying to do the force a favour...
@Bones said in Force v Highlanders:
@KiwiMurph said in Force v Highlanders:
@Kiwiwomble said in Force v Highlanders:
@KiwiMurph that famous Perth v Dunedin rivalry....grrrrrr shakes fist
Well in fairness, they might have been trying to do the Highlanders/the competition a favour given their form against other NZ teams.....
Or trying to do the force a favour...
Yep, or ... if we, as the yanks say, "do the math" ... three full rounds can't be done for five teams without a bye.
Could be done with 6 teams by including MP, but that would mean MP won't play Drua twice.
Maybe they're doing the Pacific teams a favour...
@Bovidae said in Force v Highlanders:
As per the media release when the draw was announced. You would assume (hope) that the rivalry matches are rotated each year to ensure more fairness.
The FD play MP twice this year. I assume this will be ongoing
So one other NZ pool team must play an Aust pool team twice as well. I assume the teams will vary year by year.
@Bovidae said in Force v Highlanders:
Moana Pasifika: Hurricanes, Highlanders and Fijian Drua
MP: Hurricanes Drua and CRUSADERS
Confirmation that Fakatava is out of this match too (illness)
The Highlanders have taken young Otago halfbacks James Arscott and Nathan Hastie to Australia.
@Bovidae said in Force v Highlanders:
Is Hauiti-Parapara still part of the squad? Injured? He would provide more experience.
The ODT mentioned him as one of the options a few days ago. They seemed to suggest 3 halfbacks would be travelling. Maybe Cully made a mistake or just forgot to mention him?
Two halfbacks on tour would be a risk. One rolled ankle during warmup and someone like Hunt would be covering 9
about as close to full strength as we can expect, hope to see timu on as early as possible, thats a actually a pretty good bench
I really do wish we cold see or hear what the coaches see that we dont, i was one of the few that actually liked what i saw of paea when he first joined us, scored a couple in a preseson game i think...but they got injured and when fit just hasn't shown...anything
