Angus Bradshaw has resigned as from the Highlanders board, the fifth member of the board to leave in the past year.
The Highlanders will be wanting it hot for today's match against a Suva President's XV in Lautoka.
Top Australians Craig Parry and Peter Lonard highlight the field for the New Zealand Open, though for the second year in a row the defending champion is not returning.
Mike Mullins has been dumped as North Otago coach, and Barry Matthews floated as a possible replacement.
New interpretations of rules should hopefully make the game more entertaining, acting Sanzar referee manager Lyndon Bray says.
As a start, most, if not all, Highlanders fans would take it.
It will be more about what happens on the field than what happens on the scoreboard in today's pre-season warm-up match between the Highlanders and the Chiefs at Carisbrook.
Dunedin youngster Elise Mamanu-Gray has a big year ahead of her after overcoming a disappointment which nearly saw her quit the sport.
Highlanders coach Glenn Moore said nothing should be read into the team he has named to take on the Chiefs at Carisbrook tomorrow.
It will be a combination of the codes at Carisbrook on Saturday, as first rugby and then football get their time on the ground.
Trampolining, once seen as part of a warm-up for gymnastics, is now a fully fledged sport, with Olympic medals at stake and there is hope that the sport will get a base in Dunedin.
A game in Fiji was not what the Highlanders wanted to do, but the side was left with little option after two of its traditional pre-season opponents decided to play overseas.
Millbrook will next month host the richest senior tournament seen in New Zealand as a three-senior-tournament swing emerges in the South.
Andy Boyens sometimes has to pinch himself about the past few months. The former Kavanagh College pupil is back in Dunedin as the Major League Football season takes a break. He talks to reporter Steve Hepburn.
The Otago union would gladly welcome Carl Hayman back to the province but any return to New Zealand for the big prop will be driven by the national union.
For the first time in its history, the national sevens tournament in Queenstown got a drenching at the weekend.
Otago had a day to remember followed by a day to forget at the national sevens tournament in Queenstown at the weekend.
A team from the North Island looms as the favourite at the national Sevens in Queenstown this weekend, but national coach Gordon Tietjens is lamenting the number of players who will not be on show.
The Highlanders swung back into training yesterday.
There will be rugby talent on and off the park at the national sevens excitement tournament in Queenstown starting tomorrow.