The axe has swung through the Otago team, with 10 changes to the side which takes on Tasman in Nelson tomorrow afternoon.
France will fly out players just hours after they play a club final in Paris to make sure a full-strength team faces the All Blacks at Carisbrook.
Wellington and Christchurch were allocated the quarterfinals for the next Rugby World Cup yesterday but Dunedin did not even get in the starting blocks.
He wants to follow in his father's footsteps but he does not know first-hand what those marks were.
Injuries are part and parcel of sport. But for Kelly Brazier, the two injuries she has suffered this year could not have come at a worst time.
The Otago and Dunedin public have been rewarded for progress on the new stadium and the sell-out success of July's Springboks test with a test against France next year.
Otago may go into this Saturday's must-win match against Tasman without two of its key forwards.
The Otago Spirit fell to its second loss in a row, beaten by Canterbury 29-5 in Christchurch, on Saturday.
Otago B continued its impressive start to the national competition with a 49-10 win over Hawkes Bay at the University Oval on Saturday.
Memo to Otago - the game started at 7.35pm, not 40 plus minutes later.
Southland will need to break a 71-year-old record to capture something it has not seen for almost half a century.
On paper there should only be one team in it tonight. Otago: nine Super 14 players in its run-on side, one of the big five unions, and quarterfinalist and semifinalist in the past two years.
The Highlanders will not play a Super 14 game in Queenstown next year.
Otago loose forward Adam Thomson has never started at openside flanker at first-class level - now he gets the chance at the highest level.
The Magpies swooped on Carisbrook and nabbed a deserved win over Otago last night.
Highlander Mike Delany will be part of two reunions of sorts this Friday night, but he will also be saying goodbye to one of his nearest and dearest.
Halfway through the Air New Zealand cup competition, Otago coach Steve Martin would have liked another win.
The Bog has been dropped to the nether regions.
It is starting to sound like a broken record for Otago coach Steve Martin, but he is dead right.
The New Zealand Olympic team in Beijing was too big and athletes should not be using the Games just to get experience, former Olympic selector Associate Prof David Gerrard says.