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Highlanders co-captains both set to bring up major milestones against Hurricanes

Aaron Smith and Ash Dixon. (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)

The Highlanders co-captains will bring up special milestones against the Hurricanes on Saturday.

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Inspirational hooker Ash Dixon (Highlander #228) will play his 100th Super Rugby game. He initially represented the Hurricanes before joining the Super Rugby champion Highlanders in 2015. Dixon has been in great form in 2020 and has led from the front in Super Rugby Aotearoa.

“Ash is a humble man who leads by example and has set a good standard for our forwards throughout the competition. We all very proud of his achievement,” said forwards coach Clarke Dermody.

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Ross Karl is joined by James Parsons of the Blues and Bryn Hall of the Crusaders to discuss all the action from Round 9 of Super Rugby Aotearoa and all the chat around the game in NZ.

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Ross Karl is joined by James Parsons of the Blues and Bryn Hall of the Crusaders to discuss all the action from Round 9 of Super Rugby Aotearoa and all the chat around the game in NZ.

It will be Super game number 150 for Highlander #175 Aaron Smith who recently won the Highlanders Back of the Year, Fans’ Player of the Year and Highlander Man award after displaying some of the best form of his long career during Super Rugby Aotearoa. The extra responsibility of co-captaincy has not weighed heavily on the electric halfbacks’ shoulders. With his signature bullet pass, sniping runs and boundless energy, he has been an integral part of the Highlanders since his arrival in 2011. He is the second most capped Highlander behind his longtime teammate and friend, Ben Smith, who played 153 games for the club.

Assistant coach Tony Brown acknowledged Smith’s contribution to the team: “He loves this team and wants to see this team at the top, and he knows that if we are to get there it’s up to him to drive it, and that’s what he does week after week.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDzeuA1AiJQ/

Although the game may well be played in an empty stadium, head coach Aaron Mauger was full of praise for the team’s supporters.

“We can’t thank our fans enough for the amazing support they have given us this year, it’s inspiring for the team to know we have the community behind us,” Mauger said.

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“We have one last chance to put our game out there on Saturday. We’ll be chasing an eighty-minute effort that our co-captains and the team can be proud of.”

The team has only one change from last week with Taranaki flanker Tom Florence coming onto the bench in place of Jesse Parete. Florence will be making his debut for the Highlanders.

Highlanders: Mitch Hunt, Josh McKay, Michael Collins, Patelesio Tomkinson, Jona Nareki, Josh Ioane, Aaron Smith (cc), Marino Mikaele Tu’u, Dillon Hunt, Shannon Frizell, Jack Whetton, Pari Pari Parkinson, Siate Tokolahi, Ash Dixon (cc), Ayden Johnstone. Reserves: Liam Coltman, Daniel Lienert-Brown, Jeff Thwaites, Manaaki Selby-Rickit, Teariki Ben-Nicholas, Folau Fakatava, Ngatungane Punivai, Tom Florence.

– Highlanders Rugby

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Bull Shark 5 hours ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

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