Highlanders coach leans on Joseph

The Highlanders are no strangers to tough times, and after five straight losses head coach Clarke Dermody is grateful to have Jamie Joseph on hand to get their season back on track.

Dermody admitted yesterday that the Highlanders’ current malaise was the hardest period he had experienced as coach, and the questions will get harder if the Highlanders can’t beat the Western Force in Dunedin on Saturday.

But, after naming a much stronger-looking and experienced 23 to face the Force, Dermody revealed how Joseph had helped him deal with the pressure.

“He’s been good in the last couple of weeks. He’s been through a lot and definitely this [a losing streak].

“He’s talked a lot around 2013 [when the Highlanders won just three games from 16 under Joseph], and what he learned from that.

“We’re able to put some strategies in place straight away that worked for him post that season.

“We’re not waiting until the end of the year to do it. We’ve been really proactive as a coaching group, to try and fix and get back to where we started the season.

“So, this week has been a good challenge for the coaches, but we’ve also challenged the players on getting back to what makes our game work.”

The Highlanders’ body language during their 31-0 loss to the Reds last week pointed to a team that was lacking self-belief, and Dermody confirmed that confidence had slowly been drained by the run of losses.

“I think we as a team are still really connected and the boys are still working really hard, which is really pleasing,” he said.

“What we are missing is probably a bit of confidence from where we started the season. So, that now looks like a lot of effort in the wrong areas on the pitch. When we make mistakes, we drop our head.

“This week it’s been about a bit of a mental refresh and being able to move on from those mistakes so they don’t bog us down and so that we can get back on task.”

Dermody, in the second year of his three-year contract as head coach, has also been helped by the Highlanders’ relatively clean bill of health.

Former Crusaders lock Mitch Dunshea will make his Highlanders debut on Saturday after recovering from the ruptured Achilles injury sustained playing for Canterbury in the NPC, while experienced prop Jermaine Ainsley returns from a back issue.

Dunshea scored two tries for University in Dunedin club rugby last weekend and his injection straight into the starting XV is an indication of how the Highlanders want to go back to basics.

“We've talked a lot around fundamentals this week, our carry-clean, our kicking game, and obviously set-piece is hugely important,” Dermody said.

“... I think they are probably the key areas that if we could go again [against the Reds], there were the areas we’d tidy up.”