Highlanders mingle with fans

A member of the Highlanders team will probably be playing his last Invercargill game tonight.

First five-eighth Lima Sopoaga leaves in late August to take up a contract with the Wasps Rugby Football Club in England.

He wants to farewell Southland fans with a top performance and a Highlanders win over the French Barbarians at Rugby Park.

In recent years, Sopoaga was a star player for Southland before being selected for the All Blacks. He believed the opportunities he received in Southland made him a better player.

‘‘I’m grateful to the fans here . . . I probably wouldn’t have got the black jersey [All Blacks] without them,’’ Sopoaga said.

‘‘It’s going to be quite sad [on Friday night] . . . Rugby Park’s been a great place for me.’’

Sopoaga and his Highlanders team-mates mingled with the public in Invercargill yesterday, including an autograph-signing session at H&J Smith.

Six-year-old Amelia BurkePearce, who made a special trip with her family to meet the team, will be a ball runner at the game. She won a competition, run by H&J Smith, to be a ball runner.

Amelia’s mother, Emily Burke-Pearce, helped her enter the competition.

‘‘She’s wanted to be a ball runner for a while,’’ Emily said.

Emily, her husband, Ben Pearce, and their sons, Jack Burke, 14, and Riley Pearce, 12, of Invercargill, will also be at the game, along with a set of grandparents, Peter and Kathy Harrington.

‘‘It’s great they’ve come down [early] and been accessible to the public . . . it’s brilliant,’’ Ben said of the Highlanders.

Meanwhile, former All Black Leicester Rutledge and his family will be involved in a pre-game presentation of a metal claymore [Scottish sword] to the French Barbarians.

Musicians Cheryl Anderson and Sophie Morris will sing the national anthems of New Zealand and France, respectively.

The French Barbarians will be hoping to change the luck their country has had at Rugby Park. France has played Southland twice there for two losses – in 1989 (12-7) and 1979 (12-11).

The curtain-raiser tonight will consist of three games for under15 girls. The 10-a-side teams are from Central Southland College (two teams), James Hargest College, Southland Girls’ High School, Verdon College and Eastern.

‘‘I’m grateful to the fans here . . . I probably wouldn’t have got the black jersey without them.’’ Lima Sopoaga