The threat of wooden spoon stirs the pot
The Highlanders have an injury list that stretches from Bluff to Cape Reinga but they will have another concern if they don’t front tonight – the threat of the wooden spoon.
One of sport’s cruelties is that it has a short memory. No-one will remember the Highlanders’ injuries (‘‘about a dozen’’ said head coach Tony Brown) if the history books record them at the bottom of Super Rugby Aotearoa in 2021.
Yet, that’s a real possibility if the Highlanders lose their fourth home game in a row tonight. They sit on 10 competition points, four ahead of the Hurricanes, but they have the bye next week and then travel to Wellington in the final round in a fortnight’s time.
Highlanders co-captain Aaron Smith was therefore correct on a number of levels when he said on Wednesday that Super Rugby Aotearoa was a ‘‘brutal’’ competition.
The good news is that the hurt from a poor performance against the Chiefs last Saturday appears to be lingering among the Highlanders.
In front of almost 15,000 fans at Forsyth Barr Stadium, the Highlanders couldn’t get their game going and failed to adapt to the Chiefs’ territory-based kicking game
‘‘It’s still there. It stings like hell,’’ Smith said. ‘‘I don’t think you ever shake the ones like that.
‘‘For us it was more disappointing because of the win we had the week before [against the Crusaders]. Then to come out and perform like that was pretty average. That was probably more of a sickening feeling than [the golden-point loss] with the Chiefs.
‘‘I was really proud of the fight back to give ourselves a chance.
‘‘But if we had played anything like we should have, we wouldn’t have been in golden point.’’
The Highlanders also seem to have learnt their lesson from their 39-17 loss to the Blues at Eden Park in round three, when it could be argued they tried to run before they could walk.
On that afternoon, the Highlanders tried to exhaust the Blues with an uptempo style, but their set piece wasn’t up to the job when they made handling errors or conceded soft penalties.
Assistant coach Clarke Dermody said earlier this week that challenging the Blues ‘‘at source’’ would be a focus, and they have recalled Ayden Johnstone and Siate Tokolahi to the starting lineup to meet the Blues’ big scrum.
Leon MacDonald’s side also has an array of game breakers in No 8 Hoskins Sotutu, Rieko Ioane and Caleb Clarke, the All Blacks wing having caused the Highlanders problems in the past.
That’s a daunting prospect but Brown said the Highlanders needed to take a look in the mirror first before fretting about the opposition.