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'I went and watched Game of Thrones with him last night' - Why Aaron Smith backs Ben Smith to make speedy recovery

Ben Smith (left) and Aaron Smith. (Photo by Dianne Manson/Getty Images)

Highlanders and All Blacks star halfback Aaron Smith is backing his teammate and co-captain Ben Smith to make a speedy recovery from the hamstring injury he sustained against the Chiefs on Saturday night.

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Smith, the 32-year-old fullback, may have played his last game for the franchise of which he debuted for in 2009 after straining his hamstring after falling awkwardly in the tackle of Chiefs loose forward Luke Jacobson during the two side’s 31-all draw at Forsyth Barr Stadium.

The injury is expected to rule him out for between six to eight weeks, meaning he might not feature for the side again this year should the Highlanders fail to qualify for the play-offs in six weeks’ time.

However, Aaron Smith is providing his long-time Super Rugby and international teammate with as much support as possible, and believes the 76-test veteran could come back sooner than expected, in similar fashion to how he returned to action two weeks ahead of schedule after straining his ankle against the Blues in March.

“I went and watched Game of Thrones with him last night and made sure I got around him,” Smith told RugbyPass in Dunedin on Tuesday.

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“He’s a good mate of mine and I just went and checked on him and he seems good, he was icing his leg and he’s already in that mindset that he’s going to be back quicker than six to eight [weeks], so positive for him.

“These things, you’ve just got to look at them in a positive light. It’s a big blow for us, but, as I said, that’s rugby, and we [have a] ‘next man up’ kind of mindset, but we’ll still need Bender’s influence off the field as well.”

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Aaron Smith played an integral role in the opening hour of the Highlanders’ performance on Saturday, assisting three tries with his rapid yet accurate passing game before being pulled from the field around the hour mark.

That performance followed another noteworthy outing a week beforehand against the Sunwolves in Tokyo, his second match and first start since returning from injury, but the 30-year-old said he’s still building towards his peak form.

“I’m getting there. The first start in Tokyo was great, it’s just the game time and being able to be back to that full match fitness – it’s coming,” he said.

“I’m working really hard on and off the field and trying to get my body back, but my leg’s responding really well to training at the moment.

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“I’m pretty much 100 [percent], which is great, but the ankle’s holding up good.”

Both he and the rest of the Highlanders will hope that he is at 100 percent fitness as the southerners prepare to host the Jaguares this Saturday on the first leg of their four-match Australasian tour.

The Argentines are renowned for their traditionally forward-orientated style of play, but the Highlanders could look to use Smith’s lethal passing game to run them off the park, especially if he continues his rich vein of form.

“Yeah, hopefully,” he said with a laugh when asked if his passing game would again be used as a weapon to dismantle the Jaguares.

“I think they only arrived today. We know how hard it is to travel to Argentina and play, and how much the flight takes the juice out of you, so they’re coming here, we’re the first game of their tour, and we’re pretty desperate to put last week’s result [behind us] and make sure this week’s a better one for us.

“I think we’re pretty determined and hungry to put out a performance that our people deserve this week.

“My role in this team is to play at speed and fire the ball out and there’s no excuses here to throw any bricks with dry ball, so hopefully I can do my job and do it really well.”

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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 11 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 40 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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