Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Super Rugby Pacific 2024: Highlanders are the off-season champions

(Photos by Joe Allison/Getty Images)

The RugbyPass Round Table writers answer the big questions ahead of the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season. Ben Smith (BS), Finn Morton (FM) and Ned Lester (NL) weigh in on a range of topics and make their predictions for the season.

ADVERTISEMENT

Who will be the best signing/transfer of the season?

Ben Smith: The Chiefs get an A for retention by locking in experienced players for the long haul. They didn’t have any ‘marquee’ signings on the open market, instead securing their key players like Damian McKenzie, Samisoni Taukei’aho, Anton Lienert-Brown, Shaun Stevenson, Quinn Tupaea, Cortez Ratima for 2024 and beyond.

The Crusaders went and bought the best gain line centre in the competition in Levi Aumua from Moana Pasifika who is a chance at being the best signing. Veteran Ryan Crotty is also back to provide stability in the midfield after they lost hybrid wing-centre Leicester Fainga’anuku and Jack Goodhue.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

The Hurricanes were not big winners on the market with any headline-grabbing transfers. Brad Shields might turn out to be a savvy signing, already named team captain, while former Highlanders prospect Ngani Punivai could find his footing in the capital. After losing Dane Coles to Japan, Julian Savea to Moana Pasifika, Ardie Savea to sabbatical and Owen Franks, the Hurricanes have been hit by high-profile departures.

The Blues weren’t splashy on the open market either, but they did snag All Black tighthead prop Angus Ta’avao from the Chiefs. Seven of their nine signings were under 23 years old, adding more youth to the roster. They have some sleepers on the books already, players who can turn into stars of the future like Zarn Sullivan, Corey Evans, Anton Segner, and Sam Darry.

There aren’t many players in the Blues squad in the middle tier age bracket between 25-28. Just 13 players fit that description. It’s either young talent or veterans turning or over 30.

The Highlanders get an A for their recruitment class of 2024 and are officially crowned the off-season champs after big wins through the pre-season.

ADVERTISEMENT

After a dreadful year last year they have gone to market and addressed many concerns on the roster, signed a bunch of young players coming through their development systems, while at the same time have brought back former head coach Jamie Joseph.

They required a clean out and didn’t shy away from doing so. Many players have moved on, including All Blacks Aaron Smith and Shannon Frizell.

The Mitch Hunt era didn’t pay off, now they have two New Zealand U20 prospects, Ajay Faleafaga and Cam Miller, to compete with Welsh international Rhys Patchell for the No 10 jersey.

Related

Former Crusaders No 8 Tom Sanders is an underrated signing, bringing the loose forward back from Japan. After losing Frizell and Marino Mikaele-Tu’u they needed to bolster the back row depth.

ADVERTISEMENT

Out wide they signed fullback prospect Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens and centre Tanielu Tele’a from the Blues, two impact players that have looked good in pre-season. But the boom signing is Fijian Timoci Tavatavanawai from Moana Pasifika, one of the hardest men to tackle in Super Rugby.

Tavatavanawai is the dark horse pick for best transfer of the year. At 25-years-old the winger has plenty in the tank and is already dominate at Super Rugby level. He finished second in defenders beaten last year but was on one of the worst performing teams.

On the end of the right backline Tavatavanawai will be one of  the top five try scorers. Time will tell if the Highlanders is that place, but early pre-season form suggests it is.

Finn Morton: The Highlanders’ new trio of Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens, Timoci Tavatavanawai and former Wales international Rhys Patchell could all make some noise in their colours in 2024. Especially Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens and Tavatavanawai, who could both push for All Blacks honours on the back of a strong campaign with the Highlanders.

Across the Tasman, if you’d consider this a signing, Junior Wallaby Harry McLaughlin-Phillips could establish himself as a star of tomorrow after being promoted from the Queensland Reds Academy. There’s a lot to like about so many players.

But there’s one man who stands out above the rest; one player who has already proven himself to be a hard-hitting, no-nonsense kind of talent who could very well be an All Black in foreseeable future. That man is Crusaders centre Levi Aumua.

Aumua, who played two seasons with Moana Pasifika, scored five tries last season, including a double away to the Crusaders in Round Seven. With an imposing frame, a clean pair of heels and a frighteningly determined focus on the field, there’s not much to dislike about Aumua’s game.

Ned Lester: Brad Shields was the signing the Hurricanes needed. The fact that he’s been named the captain makes his the best signing of the season.

Without the leadership of Ardie Savea and Dane Coles, there wasn’t a clear cut favourite to lead the team in 2024, but Shields’ experience lends a needed voice to the playing group and specifically the forward pack.

While additions like Levi Aumua for the Crusaders, Timoci Tavatavanawai for the Highlanders and Ben Donaldson for the Force add plenty of firepower, Shields is taking on the most responsibility on and off the field and servicing the biggest need.

Related

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

1 Comment
h
h 276 days ago

hurricanes will have their worst season in recent history. the players they’re relying on to become future all blacks, like, love and lakai don’t seem to have enough structure to dominate at this level. i’m also not sure the culture will be helped by having shields as captain. 🙃

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

287 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Why Freddy Douglas has played for Scotland before Edinburgh Why Freddy Douglas has played for Scotland before Edinburgh
Search