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'We are looking for him to dominate that 15 position': Tony Brown's high hopes for returning fullback

connor-garden-bachop

Highlanders head coach Tony Brown is excited to see fullback Connor Garden-Bachop return to his starting side after a long layoff with injury.

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He is looking forward to the ‘X-factor’ that Garden-Bachop brings to the side and is expecting him to create a lot of things at the back against the Crusaders.

“He’s been training with us for awhile now, the medical staff have been holding him off until his wrist and finger have recovered,” Brown said of Garden-Bachop.

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“Finally we get to select him this weekend and he’s pretty excited to get out there.

“I wouldn’t pick him if I didn’t have confidence in him.”

Garden-Bachop was part of the side that shocked the Crusaders last April, defeating them at home 33-12 in an unexpected result. The Highlanders built a solid 16-7 lead at half time before extending it to 26-7 early in the second half.

A late Richie Mo’unga try with twelve minutes to go threatened to be the start of a Crusaders comeback, but it was Garden-Bachop who put that to bed by scooping a loose pass inside the Crusaders’ 22 and sliding over for a try to seal the deal.

“I think with Conor, he’s got a little bit of extra gas, a bit of X-factor there, he’s hugely confident in his own ability so we are looking for him to dominate that 15 position, bring a bit of X-factor to the game like he did last year against the Crusaders, create a lot of things from the back.

To accomodate the return of Garden-Bachop into the starting team, last week’s fullback Sam Gilbert has moved to the wing in a reshuffle but Brown says that the move to fullback was intended to be temporary.

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“Sammy Gilbert played his first couple of games for the Highlanders on the wing, he did a really good job there,” he said.

“We moved him back to fullback in the pre-season, that first game through not having Connor available. He did a good job there but I’m looking forward to seeing him back on the wing, just being physical and really good defensively.

The other backline change sees barnstorming midfielder Thomas Umaga-Jensen get a start at 12 after an impressive cameo off the bench against the Chiefs.

The Highlanders possess a sizeable midfield with the pair compared to their Crusaders opposites, with Braydon Ennor and David Havili set for a bruising encounter as traffic is sent their way.

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“He had a good pre-season, did a great job off the bench. We feel as though he’s ready for a starting opportunity and we are looking forward to seeing the combination between Tug [Umaga-Jensen] and Fetuli [Paea], trying to get physical with the Crusaders midfield,” Brown said.

“We are hoping that [power] will be a point of difference for him [Umaga-Jensen] and something that will stand out in the competition going forward.”

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1 Comment
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Graeme 1000 days ago

David Ennor you say ?

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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.

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