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Injuries force changes for Highlanders who name three debutants on bench

Scott Gregory. (Photo by Rodrigo Valle/Getty Images)

The Highlanders return to their home stadium on Friday night to play the Melbourne Rebels with a side that has remained largely unchanged over the first three matches.

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In the front row, experienced campaigner Daniel Lienert-Brown returns to the starting line-up in place of Waikato prop Ayden Johnstone.

Elsewhere in the forwards, Jack Whetton takes over at lock for Josh Dickson who left the field last week with a shoulder injury and Teariki Ben-Nicholas earns his first Super Rugby start after some impressive performances off the bench.

Ben-Nicholas’ promotion allows World Cup All Black Shannon Frizell a rest.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8-C1mvAE4b/

In the backs, Josh McKay secures the right-wing spot for this week while in the reserves it will be Highlanders’ debuts for Jeff Thwaites, Manaaki Selby-Rickit and Scott Gregory.

Head Coach Aaron Mauger is excited about the return to Forsyth Barr Stadium – especially now that Otago University has kicked off its first semester.

“It’s always good to be at home,” said Mauger, “the students are back in town and will no doubt bring a lot of colour and energy to the occasion on Friday night, our players will look to draw on that energy and get our game going under the roof.”

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Highlanders: Michael Collins, Josh McKay, Rob Thompson, Josh Ioane, Jona Nareki, Mitch Hunt, Aaron Smith, Marino Mikaele-Tu’u, James Lentjes (c), Teariki Ben-Nicholas, Jack Whetton, Jesse Parete, Siate Tokolahi, Liam Coltman, Daniel Lienert-Brown. Reserves: Ash Dixon, Ayden Johnstone, Conan O’Donnell, Manaaki Selby-Rickit, Dillon Hunt, Kayne Hammington, Teihorangi Walden, Scott Gregory.

– with Highlanders Rugby

WATCH: See what assistant coach Tony Brown had to say ahead of the Highlanders’ clash with the Rebels.

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Flankly 1 hour 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 1 hour 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
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LONG READ Are the All Blacks doomed to a 70% flatline? Are the All Blacks doomed to a 70% flatline?
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