It is a changing of the guard for the Highlanders for next year as a younger generation comes through.
The team for the 2024 season was named a couple of weeks ago and there has been plenty of movement.
There always is when the Rugby World Cup is played. Many players signal that is the time when they move on, heading offshore creating some gaps for the next big thing to come to the fore.
The side would come together today for a bit of administration today before hitting the training paddock. The onus will be on fitness in these first few weeks.
The Highlanders have had a real clean-out with more than 15 players moving on. They have all been well signalled. Some will be greatly missed — Aaron Smith, Shannon Frizell and Josh Dickson — while others — Vilimoni Koroi and Rhys Marshall — perhaps not as much.
Koroi is a case study in what went wrong. A very gifted player, he was a star of the NZ sevens side straight out of school but never cut it for the Highlanders. Some thought he was a first five-eighth while others out on the wing was his place. A dodgy knee injury did not help but his future looks cloudy at the age of just 25.
The promotion of players can always go two ways. If one was optimistic, it would create a chance for young players to come through and make a statement at the next level. Get out and grab the jersey, show the coaches and the fans what they can do and start the march to the black jersey. The side’s only All Black, prop Ethan de Groot is a fine example of that. Within two years of making his Highlanders debut he was an All Black.
On the other hand, things could take a turn for the worse. Players may not make it at the next level. Some can look fine at the provincial level yet get exposed at Super Rugby. There is a definite step-up in class between the two levels and the gap is getting wider.
There are four players from Southland who have made next year’s squad.
De Groot will be the only current All Black in the team and will be joined in the front row by raw hooker Jack Taylor. Matt Whaanga, after plying his trade for many years for firstly Otago and then Southland, gets promoted. Whaanga, a midfield back, trained with the Hurricanes for a good period last season and then joined the Highlanders at the back end of the season, where he impressed. His promotion is a just reward for perseverance and sticking with it.
Fresh-faced flanker Hayden Michaels also joins the team.
Gone from the Highlanders, among many, are Southlanders Marty Banks and Scott Gregory. Banks appears to have reached the end of a well-travelled road while Gregory has gone to Italy. Gregory is an example of a player who did not quite cut the mustard at Super Rugby. He had a rough start, played exceptionally well in the 2021 destruction of the Crusaders but somewhat lost his way in the next two seasons before heading off.
Unfortunately there have been too many of his like in the Highlanders in the past four years.
The coming season is one of rebuilding but patience may wear thin with fans. Are too many of the players being promoted too early? Young players are nothing but ambitious but dreams often do not match reality. Many of those fresh-faced players should have stayed in the provincial competition for another year or two.
The Highlanders are not going to win the title but need to play well and to their potential.
One must remember the Highlanders have more All Blacks in their coaching staff than they do on the paddock. That never bodes well.
