Ours now, wherever they come from

In the opening years of professional rugby, a match between Otago and Southland was a virtual Highlanders trial. But these days nothing could be further from the truth. Rugby writer Steve Hepburn looks at why, as the two sides get ready to clash tomorrow in Invercargill.

When Otago hosted Southland 10 years ago, there were 18 Highlanders on display.

Today there will be half of that.

Statistics can often be manipulated and used to argue for anything, but in this case they illustrate how much, down this neck of the woods anyway, the game has changed in the past few years.

Back in 2004, Otago could parade the likes of Oliver, Hayman and Hoeft in the front row.

Between them those guys ended up playing 134 tests for New Zealand, 306 games for the Highlanders and 221 games for Otago.

Today, the Otago front row of Donald Brighouse, Liam Coltman and Aki Seiuli will have a combined 66 Otago caps.

Coltman has 43 of those and is the only Highlander as such, although Seiuli has trained with the squad.

So how did we get to this place, where the Highlanders come from far and wide and Otago and Southland are just the supporters base, not the playing source?

When rugby went professional and Super rugby was invented, the Highlanders were basically an extension of a dominant Otago team.

Most thought it would simply stay that way.

Otago would attract players through its tertiary institutions, legacy and great playing style and would always be successful.

Good idea, but reality, and a lack of success by the Highlanders, have changed things.

In 2000, Otago supplied 24 Highlanders and Southland contributed one - halfback Brett McCormack.

This year there were players from 13 provinces in the Highlanders.

In 2008 with the likes of Oliver, Hayman and Nick Evans moving on, Otago supplied 14 players to the Highlanders while Southland contributed seven.

Highlanders chief executive Russell Gray had brought in an idea of not selecting draft players but there was a problem or two with with that - those left in the south were not good enough and those that did come were not much chop.

Players no longer moved south to study. They stayed up north and made their own Super sides.

Players were drafted into Otago and Southland and loaned back to their province to get round Gray's draft rule but the idea was quietly dropped.

By the time Jamie Joseph came on board in late 2010, and with the Highlanders continuously finishing on the bottom of the Super rugby pile, no-one cared where the players came from.

A game between Otago and Southland was no longer a chance for some young whippersnapper to stake a claim to make the Highlanders.

To make the Highlanders was about playing better than every other player in your position from around the country.

Not just the swede-eater from down south.

The Highlanders won their first three games in a row in 2011 and more than 20,000 turned up to watch them play the Crusaders at Carisbrook.

That starting side featured three Otago players and four from Southland.

By then, direct franchise contracting had been introduced and that was the last nail in the coffin of the homegrown Super rugby side.

Now we have Japanese halfbacks, midfield backs from Wellington and Manawatu props.

But whether they come from Temuka or Timbuktu, it seems as long as they win, they are ours.

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