Super Rugby Aotearoa: Josh Ioane returns for Highlanders as side named to play Chiefs

He’s definitely wrong about Dmac too, yes. Pretty much everything he said, in either the words he used or the way he said, was off in that interview. Said Dmac was a “linebreaker” like what, hello, with his pass? The one question I thought they were close to getting right and actually being worthwhile, other than a few bits to Robinson on the running side, was when they asked about valuing experience and youth in his second year. Really missed the boat there as they got a mundane answer, needed to be more direct and ask how does the balance between selecting experience, the players that have class, and those players that in form change now that you’re into your second year. Would he flat out deny any change, or would there have been some honesty about how little it would be. He’d be proud enough to presume he was perfect last year so he’ll obviously been taking the same ‘perfect’ approach this year! One telling tid bit was when he made up some numbers about new caps going through a World Cup cycle, where he had 10 one year, 5 the next, a couple.. and stated that youve also got to be open to ‘bolters’ so you “don’t shut any doors”.. sounds like some pretty weak innovation incoming.

Let him play where he wants to play and where he can be influential.

The World Cup might well be a bridge too far for Siya. Rassie did say that he has to be the best in his position to keep his spot in the Bok side and the captaincy. I’m sure Siya knows this and he tends to take his game to another level when he plays for the Boks.

Obviously as you’d expect in your debut season, it’s progressive to start with. But as far as the convo goes, he’s certainly had the least time and hasn’t continued to raise expectations like the other names have, allowing them to catch up to him a bit.