Missing the comforts of home
Ask the Highlanders about the importance of home field advantage and they’ll plonk you down in front of a big screen to watch a replay of their quarterfinal debacle against the Crusaders in Christchurch.
Their 17-0 loss at AMI Stadium pulled the curtains shut on a Super Rugby campaign which promised so much but ultimately crashed and burned in swirling winds and heavy rain.
While there’s no guarantee fine conditions would have changed the result of the game, it certainly would have allowed the Dunedinbased franchise - spoilt by playing under a roof every other week - the chance to at least fire a shot.
‘‘We’ve sort of got to take the conditions out of it and try and get some home semis and home finals to really have another crack at this competition,’’ departing coach Tony Brown said.
He’d just watched his team fire a blank in conditions the pre-2012 Highlanders, who played at Carisbrook in the miserable Dunedin winter, would have thrived in.
But times have changed. The Highlanders crave fine conditions, a fast track and an open and fast paced game - quite the opposite to what the deluge in Christchurch allowed last weekend.
‘‘It doesn’t suit us, we like playing at speed and attacking space,’’ Brown said.
So while Japan-bound Brown won’t be part of it, he knows the Highlanders need to start chalking up more wins - particularly against NZ teams - to avoid a potential repeat.
Because two years after winning their maiden title, 2017 was shaping up rather well for the Highlanders, with many picking them to tip up the Crusaders in their quarterfinal.
You couldn’t blame them. After all, the Highlanders went into the match having won 10 of their last 11 games and came agonisingly close to beating the red and blacks in their two regular-season games.
The 30-27 and 25-22 losses in rounds two and 15 respectively made up half of the Highlanders’ four regular season defeats, as their impressive 11-4 record was only good enough to lock up the seventh seed due to the laughable conference system and playoff format.
‘‘I’m pleased with the way the team fought their way through the early season injury toll, then we went on a nine-game run and put ourselves in a great position,’’ Brown said.
They also knocked over the touring British and Irish Lions 23-22 in Dunedin last month, now the highlight of their season.
The Highlanders battled a double-digit injury toll for the majority of the season, and at one stage had five loose forwards out of action.
First choice first five-eighth Lima Sopoaga missed most of the season with a hamstring injury, while co-captain and fullback Ben Smith was in and out of the team with head and hamstring issues.
But players stepped up, particularly young Otago flanker Dillon Hunt, 22, first-five eighth Marty Banks and lock Jackson Hemopo.
It was Banks who stepped up in Sopoaga’s absence and guided the team to a franchise-record ninematch winning streak, which was only snapped after Crusaders replacement pivot Mitch Hunt drilled a miraculous 43m drop goal after the hooter at AMI Stadium last month.
After starting the season by losing three of their first four matches, it was a heck of a turnaround.
Loose forward Luke Whitelock, lock Tom Franklin, utility Richard Buckman and hooker Liam Coltman were four of their best performers, and who could forget the three late tries the Highlanders scored to notch a remarkable 45-41 comeback win against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein?
In addition to Brown finishing up with the team, assistant coach Scott McLeod, centre Malakai Fekitoa, Banks, wing Patrick Osborne and prop Siosiua Halanukonuka won’t be back.
While all are headed elsewhere in 2018, the majority of this year’s roster will return to have another stab at winning the title.
Just who replaces Brown - Aaron Mauger is the favourite - should be confirmed in the coming weeks, after the team’s celebrated what Brown summed up as a ‘‘great season’’.
‘‘Highlanders always enjoy the end of year. We’ll celebrate our season even though it didn’t finish the way we wanted it to finish. But it will be a bit more around our team, our family and our brotherhood.’’