Mauger needs more time
There are no easy answers for the Highlanders at the moment. Deprived of their injured captain James Lentjes for the rest of the season and already missing several key players, they will face the Jaguares in Argentina on Sunday minus Aaron Smith and Liam Coltman.
They were already struggling following the departure of several world-class performers in the off-season, including Ben Smith, Liam Squire and Waisake Naholo.
Make no mistake, this is a rebuilding year for the Highlanders and the scale of the task is such that it requires one crucial ingredient: time.
That means time for the players and time for the head coach, Aaron Mauger.
He may be in his third year at the Highlanders but this is really just the first year of the second phase of his job.
The Highlanders were gutted by departures at the end of last season and while they have been reluctant to talk about the players who aren’t there any more, you don’t lose a swag of senior All Blacks and the likes of Jackson Hemopo, Tom Franklin and Tyrel Lomax and carry on as if nothing had happened.
In a post Rugby World Cup year the Highlanders always looked like the franchise most vulnerable to a downturn, but all Kiwi franchises are being battered by the same forces.
Even take a look at the Crusaders: they have a worldleading development structure, underpinned by the Canterbury and Tasman unions, and often get to pick the juiciest apples from the recruitment tree.
But are they quite the same team as the past three years? The jury is out on that one.
This year is testing Mauger. After each loss he is required to front the media and strike that fine line between staying positive, protecting his players and still giving an honest appraisal of their frailties.
The losses, particularly at home, visibly hurt and he was almost apologetic in delivering his assessment after the Bulls game last week.
So, let’s kick the line about Mauger being a disconnected Crusader parachuted into the Highlanders by NZ Rugby into touch.
When the Highlanders first employed Mauger it was on their own initiative, and initially out of their own pocket, and Mauger is now firmly embedded into Dunedin life and what the Highlanders mean to the people in the region.
And while it might not feel like it now, the little bits of scar tissue Mauger is accumulating now will make him a better coach in 2021 and beyond. Someone is going to get benefit of this year’s lessons because at 39 years old Mauger is a young coach whose best years are all in front of him.
Of course, in the unsentimental world of professional rugby, results are still king.
The Highlanders face a crucial period of New Zealand derbies from late March to mid May when they play the Crusaders, Chiefs (twice), Hurricanes (twice) and Blues.
Predicting wins and losses from those contests is a mug’s game but there has to be an uptick in performances so that the Highlanders’ stakeholders get the feeling that they are on the right track.
These are tough times for the men from the deep south.
There is no ‘fast forward’ button to get the squad to where Mauger and Tony Brown need it to be. Only time can do that, and there is still a case to be made that Mauger needs it to finish the job he has started.