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All Blacks stars near Super Rugby return for Highlanders

Waisake Naholo. (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)

All Blacks duo Liam Squire and Waisake Naholo are close to making their returns to Super Rugby after prolonged injury lay-offs.

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Hip and knee issues have prevented loose forward Squire from taking to the field this year, while winger Naholo picked up a knee injury in training almost four weeks ago.

Squire’s knee injury, sustained last month, was expected to rule him out of action for between eight to 10 weeks, and Naholo’s niggle was supposed to keep him sidelined for up to six weeks, but both players are ahead of schedule in their recovery, and could feature for the Highlanders as early as next Saturday in their home derby against the Chiefs in Dunedin.

Their speedy recoveries come not long after the return of star halfback Aaron Smith from an ankle injury, which was initially meant to keep him out of action for up to six weeks, but the 30-year-old came back after just three weeks.

“Both of those guys [Squire and Naholo] are potentially ready for maybe next week or the following week,” Highlanders head coach Aaron Mauger told Stuff on Saturday.

“We’re very fortunate we’ve got an outstanding medical staff who do everything they can to get our boys back on the field as soon as possible.

“We saw that with Aaron Smith and few other guys who have come back this year from some niggles, so hopefully those guys will either be back either next week or the week after.”

The addition of both Squire and Naholo will be a boost to a resurgent-looking Highlanders outfit, who, after enduring a five-match winless run, have won back-to-back matches and catapulted from 13th-place to fifth on the Super Rugby standings after their 52-0 thumping of the Sunwolves in Tokyo on Friday.

“There’s no guarantees,” Mauger said.

“There’s still a lot of work to get through before they are considered for selection but they’ve been very dedicated to the plans put in place by the medical staff.

“Marty Banks is also due back in a few weeks as well.

“Hopefully we’ll have all those guys fit and ready for the Jaguares game [in Dunedin on May 11] or heading into Africa, at least.”

While the imminent return of Squire and Naholo is promising for the Dunedin-based franchise, a foot injury to first-five Bryn Gatland, sustained in Friday’s win over the Sunwolves, appears to be of quite some significance.

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Gatland was in discomfort as he was carried from the field by teammates in the closing stages of the fixture after coming off the bench for fellow pivot Josh Ioane.

The injury will require scans to see how long the 23-year-old is ruled out for, but should it be for an extensive period of time, Ioane will be the squad’s only fit specialist first-five, with Banks still recovering from the broken foot he picked up against the Hurricanes three weeks ago.

Mauger told Stuff that in the absence of both Banks and Gatland, outside back Josh McKay could be used in a playmaking role.

“Josh has played No 10 for the Bravehearts [the Highlanders’ reserve side] this year,” Mauger said.

“He played a lot of No 10 in his early years, at school and through the age grades and he’s run a lot at No 10 at training.

“If Josh had to play at No 10 we’d back him to do the job.

“If he gets that opportunity I’m sure he’ll take it with both hands.”

In other news:

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Flankly 1 minute ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 10 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
N
Nickers 39 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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