Easing the burden on Smith
The Highlanders’ decision to promote James Lentjes to cocaptain alongside Aaron Smith has been taken to lift the All Black’s game, says coach Tony Brown.
Smith shared the captaincy duties with Ash Dixon last year, but was named as sole skipper in 2022, with Lentjes and Mitch Hunt his vice-captains.
However, that has been tweaked for the crucial game against the Reds tonight as Smith goes head to head against Wallabies No 9 Tate McDermott.
‘‘Obviously, Aaron’s only just come back into the team last week,’’ Brown said. ‘‘We just want to share the workload around the captaincy.
‘‘Jim had an awesome impact on our team when he captained the team, so it’s just around sharing the workload and trying to get a better performance out of Aaron Smith.’’
The past few weeks have been a tricky period for Smith, who was chided by New Zealand Rugby for publicly criticising match officials in the wake of the Highlanders’ loss to the Hurricanes, although Asafo Aumua’s subsequent ban for striking Gareth Evans – overlooked at the time – showed that his frustration was understandable.
Smith was also marched back 10 metres for backchat during the Highlanders’ win against the Drua last weekend, and it may be that the Highlanders assign Lentjes to be the team’s communicator with referee Nic Berry – a former Reds halfback – for the game in Queensland.
With showers forecast against a hungry, Brad Thorn-coached
Reds side, the game is also likely to be won and lost around the setpiece and ruck areas, where flanker Lentjes has a prime view.
‘‘I’m around the action around the forward pack,’’ Lentjes said. ‘‘And Aaron worries more about the bigger picture stuff and how the backs are going.
‘‘So, it’s sometimes easier for me to have that view on how we are going as a forward pack, the breakdown stuff, and that’s what I can influence, and he can be putting his energy into the backs.
‘‘We both can then talk about game scenarios, and where we are on the scoreboard.’’
Lentjes is no stranger to a leadership role, and there is also a degree of familiarity with the No 6 jersey that will occupy against the Reds.
At roughly the same stage last year, Lentjes also made the switch from No 7 to No 6 following an injury to Shannon Frizell as the Highlanders swept the Australian teams on the way to the Super Rugby Trans-Tasman final.
However, they are arguably not quite in the same form this year, and Lentjes admitted that the points were not coming easily for the Highlanders.
‘‘I think every game we have a look at ourselves, forwards and backs, and there’s always a couple of key moments in the game that let us down,’’ he said.
‘‘I feel like we work really hard for our points, and sometimes we cough up soft points. If we can eliminate that, I think we’ll start to swing things our way.
‘‘We play really good rugby in patches, so we know we can do it, we’ve just got to do it all the time.’’
Brown said there was room for
improvement in virtually every part of the Highlanders’ game, but hoped that a settled backline – where wings Scott Gregory and Sam Gilbert face key duels with Wallaby Jordan Petaia and former NRL star Suliasi Vunivalu – would lift the performance.
‘‘The execution of everything really, from our attack, from tryscoring opportunities, and defensively, being a lot better in every situation,’’ Brown said when asked what he was looking for.
‘‘Everyone is trying hard, everyone is trying to improve, so we’re just hoping that keeping a consistent selection is going to help those guys get a little bit more belief and confidence in their ability.’’