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'Fakatava cannot carry you': Ex-All Black's message to the Highlanders pack

(Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)

Ex-All Black great Sir John Kirwan has put the onus on the Highlanders’ tight five in the wake of the 60-20 defeat at the hands of the Blues in the opening round of Super Rugby Pacific.

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Facing a Blues side with 13 All Blacks, the Highlanders were there own worst enemy at times as errors fuelled a Blues backline that capitalised on turnovers with deadly counter-attacking rugby.

The home side lost pivotal No 8 Marino Mikaele Tu’u in the first half to injury which didn’t help, and they could only manage 20 minutes of competitive rugby whilst the Blues had two yellow cards.

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Speaking on Sky Sport NZ’s The Breakdown Kirwan said Clarke Dermody’s side is ‘in trouble’ and had a stern message for the Highlanders’ pack who ‘need to look in the mirror’.

“The Highlanders are already in trouble I think,” Kirwan told The Breakdown panel.

“Their forwards, and Joey will tell you this everyday of the week, they need to get in and do the hard work.

“Make the tackles, not miss them, hit rucks really hard, not for 20 minutes, for 80 minutes.

“It’s really hard for them but their front five really needs to go to work, really, really work for 80 because Fakatava cannot carry you.

“He cannot keep trying to do that stuff.”

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Recently capped All Black halfback Folau Fakatava returned from an ACL injury for the first time and The Breakdown panel believed he had a good showing that would build confidence despite the lopsided result.

The No 9 had a potential try ruled out and looked threatening on a couple of occasions backing up in support after being out for nine months.

Former All Black Mils Muliaina said that Fakatava showed his true character in a losing side which should boost his stock.

“Often when a team struggles, and the Highlanders struggled in the weekend, he [Fakatava] rose up, he didn’t stand down,” Muliaina said.

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“Those are the players that I sort of look for, to see who actually competes when they are going backwards, rather than getting a nice little ride that perhaps some other teams have.”

It won’t get any easier for the Highlanders who have to rebound against the Crusaders in Melbourne next weekend.

Kirwan said the Highlanders are staring down the barrel of four opening losses to New Zealand sides but have what it takes to spring a surprise on the Crusaders.

“They will need a huge performance this week and they’ve got a hurt Crusaders side,” he said.

“You don’t want to be coming in after our [NZ] round-robin and you are looking at four losses.

“They’ve got to look in the mirror straight away. And they can surprise the Crusaders because they’ve done it in the past.

“I think really, they should be putting it on their front five. They need to get to work.

“I think they worked really hard for 20 minutes, I thought they could do a lot better.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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