Highlanders scrum coach Steve Cumberland admits to some feelings of apprehension last year as he set about rebuilding a set piece gutted by the departures of three All Blacks.
Cumberland's job could not have been harder. He had gone from tapping Anton Oliver, Carl Hayman and Clarke Dermody on the shoulder and politely asking them to decimate their weekly opposition, to having to find replacements for all three Europe-bound veterans.
The consensus was there was every chance the Highlanders would battle up front in the post-Hayman and company era.
Instead, the Highlanders have fielded a scrum that has not been bested. Before the bye, it comprehensively out-played a Wellington pack that included five All Blacks. You could say the reconstruction of the scrum has gone smoothly.
‘‘I guess we'd been preparing for this for a couple of years. The writing was on the wall with Anton, and Zarg and Derms had both indicated they were looking to move on,'' Cumberland said.
‘‘We sat down and looked at how we were going to get a scrum base to build from. And we knew it was going to be a difficult job because, for one thing, tighthead props are pretty scarce in New Zealand.''
To replace Hayman, regarded as possibly the finest technical scrummager in world rugby, the Highlanders took a punt on a big lump from Hawkes Bay who had hardly any tighthead experience at first-class level and was coming off a long suspension for whacking Neemia Tialata.
Clint Newland was not unknown to the Highlanders. He had played for coach Glenn Moore in the Divisional XV, and Cumberland recalls seeing him play in Invercargill two years ago where he excelled on the tighthead side in the last 20min of a game.
‘‘I guess there was always a bit of a risk involved with Clint,'' Cumberland said.
‘‘But I thought he showed some tremendous stuff in that game against Southland, and obviously Glenn knew him quite well. We targeted him as our No 1 tighthead prop through the draft.
‘‘Clint's got some real attributes about him. Physically, he's bigger than Carl Hayman. Technically, he's not as good, but you wouldn't expect that at this stage of his career.
‘‘He's a big guy, he's physical, aggressive, and he's got a never-say-die attitude. You can cover up some small technical deficiencies with those attributes".
Newland, in person, is far from the intimidating character he appears on the field. He's a quiet bloke who would much rather be hunting deer in the Hawkes Bay hills than be interviewed.
He said he was too excited to learn of his Super 14 call-up to worry about the pressure of replacing Hayman in the No 3 Highlanders jersey.
‘‘I was just real keen to get down here, to see how I would go against the boys in the next tier up,'' Newland said.
‘‘It's been going pretty well, I think. It's certainly a step up from NPC. But it hasn't been that much harder. It's a bit more full on, I guess. At NPC level you might get a couple of easy games and you don't get that in Super 14.''
Newland was a loosehead for Hawkes Bay for years, only switching to tighthead for four games last year before copping a 10-week ban.
While Newland is the grizzled provincial veteran getting a chance at the top level, Jamie Mackintosh is the rising star who has lived with great expectations on his shoulders since he was 15.
‘‘Whopper'', considered the most athletic of the Highlanders props, is living up to those expectations now he has emerged from the shadow of Dermody and Hayman.
‘‘Last year, Jamie probably hated us because we told him he wouldn't get substantial game time, because he clearly wasn't as good as Clarke, Carl or Chris King,'' Cumberland said.
‘‘That was a bitter pill for him to swallow but it was probably the changing point of his career. He's gone from the superstar age grade kid to establishing himself at the top level. He had a fantastic Air New Zealand Cup and we're seeing a player who is becoming a genuine scrummager and allround player".
King, who has the most experience at the top level of the propping squadron, has not been given a start in the first month, but his strength and ability to cover both sides is highly rated by the coaches.
He played well for the Highlanders last year but appeared to lose confidence in the national championship, Cumberland said. He had come back stronger and fitter for the Highlanders and has played well off the bench.
In every Super 14 squad there is a fourth prop, the unlucky guy who does the same amount of training but does not get the chance to play much. In the Highlanders, that is Keith Cameron, the relatively senior (30) and respected loosehead who has been working on the ability to play tighthead.
‘‘Keith is fantastic. If guys all had his attitude, it would be unbelievable,'' Cumberland said.
Cumberland has been pleased with how his big men have adapted to the new laws that have sped the game up.
Fears the laws would lead to a reduction in the status of the scrum have proved unfounded.
There are about a third more scrums in each game, and the law stipulating backlines must be back 5m from scrums has made the set piece more important than ever.
- Winger Lucky Mulipola has been told his hopes of a surprise Super 14 return from a broken arm are dead and buried.
‘‘Lucky will be out for the rest of the season,'' Highlanders coach Glenn Moore told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
Mulipola, formerly of Tasman and now signed for Otago, will be available for the start of the Air New Zealand Cup in late July.
