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Highlanders team named for pre-season clash against Crusaders

(Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)

The Highlanders have named the first team of 2022 to play the Crusaders in Weston on Friday.

In true pre-season fashion, the Highlanders have named a 33-man team in what will be the first in-game opportunity for players to challenge for a spot to play in round one of Super Rugby Pacific against the Chiefs.

Three key players are returning from injury to take the field on Friday with one being Folau Fakatava. Fakatava’s 2021 season cut was short after he suffered a knee injury following some impressive form in the early stages of Super Rugby Aotearoa.

Thomas Umaga-Jensen and Fetuli Paea will also take the field after spending 2021 on the side-lines recovering from shoulder and ankle injuries respectively.

Highlanders head coach, Tony Brown, is looking forward to seeing Fakatava, Umaga-Jensen and Paea return to the field.

“It’s good to have TUJ, Fetuli and Fakatava back, they bring a bit of X-factor to their positions and have been working hard to get back to full fitness. This is an opportunity for us as coaches and for the players themselves to see where they are at.”

There will also be a number of new players pulling on the Highlanders jersey for the first time on Friday with Brown adding that recent signings Mosese Dawaii and Vereniki Tikoisolomone, will be exciting to watch and that he will be keeping an eye on Otago youngsters, Sean Withy, Fabian Holland and Christian Leo-Willie to see how they handle the step up to Super Rugby.

Friday’s game is being played behind closed doors under the current red traffic light setting and Brown commented, “it’s a real shame we can’t have a crowd at Weston, we’ve had some great Farmland’s Cups over the years, and they are always packed out with our rural supporters.

“We know we have some staunch Highlanders supporters in North Otago and its really disappointing not to be able to put on a show for them – it would have been a great way to kick off our 2022 campaign”.

Both teams and match officials will observe a moments silence before kick-off to acknowledge the passing of David Rhodes.

Rhodes served as Vice President and then President of the New Zealand Rugby Union from 2013-2017, and served on the Canterbury Rugby Union board for 12 years, including six as chairman, and sat on the board of the Crusaders for seven years.

The Farmlands Cup will not be contested at this game and will be rescheduled in consultation with Farmlands to be contested during the Super Rugby Pacific competition should games be able to be played in front of full crowds.

Highlanders v Crusaders – 4pm, Friday 4th February, Weston Park

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  1. Daniel Lienert-Brown
  2. Liam Coltman
  3. Jermaine Ainsley
  4. Manaaki Selby-Rickit
  5. Josh Dickson
  6. Gareth Evans
  7. James Lentjes (C)
  8. Hugh Renton
  9. Folau Fakatava
  10. Mitch Hunt
  11. Scott Gregory
  12. Thomas Umaga-Jensen
  13. Fetuli Paea
  14. Mosese Dawai
  15. Sam Gilbert

Reserves:

Luca Inch, Rhys Marshall, Flynn Thomas, Josh Hohneck, Saula Mau, Sam Caird, Fabian Holland, Sam Fischli, Sean Withy, Christian Leo-Willie, Kayne Hammington, Nathan Hastie, Marty Banks, Cam Millar, Vereniki Tikoisolomone,  Ngatungane Punivai, Josh Timu, Rory Van Vugt

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2 Comments
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Karl 1002 days ago

Looks like a reasonable lineup on paper. Tony Brown is a good coach so should have them humming. Not sure this will be the Highlander's year though. Great to have rugby back again!

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Bull Shark 3 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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