The good thing about being a reporter — and it is not meeting people or the so-called perks — is every day is different.
And that is what was good about the Highlanders. The variety on offer.
They ain’t the boring dominating consistency of the Crusaders. The trench warfare of the Blues. The near misses from the Chiefs and the Hurricanes.
The Highlanders have presented a rollercoaster ride for 30 years.
Ups and downs. Over years, seasons, even in games, they look commanding then meek.
But within those peaks and valleys, there have been some great games.
The win over the Bulls in Palmerston North in 2009, the defeat of the Crusaders in 2011, the win over the same side in 2021, smashing the Chiefs in 1997.
Best game of all? It is hard to go past the victorious final in 2015. Or the win over the Chiefs in Invercargill earlier that season. Loved the defeat of the Bulls in Pretoria just as Jamie Joseph took over. Some of the games in 1998 were great.
Poor games? Unfortunately, take your pick. The capitulation against the Force in Queenstown in 2010 would be hard to beat as coach Glenn Moore saw his career fall apart in 40 minutes. In 2013, there was a long list of games which were truly woeful — the loss to the Brumbies was probably the worst. The 7-6 victory over the Force a couple of years ago was a shocker, and there have been plenty of fruitless trips to Christchurch.
Best players? The two Smiths, obviously. Adam Thomson was a favourite, while Waisake Naholo in his first few years was dynamite.
Taine Randell was an underappreciated talent as was Carl Hoeft. Jeff Wilson was all class.
There were plenty of journeymen, but the way any game is played these days, journeymen find their spot. And yes, there is way too much kicking today. Fitness and power have wrongly won out over skill and guile.
Joseph has arguably been the most dominant individual for the Highlanders. I can remember watching him struggling through a game for Otago B in 1989 on a muddy Bathgate Park. If anyone then had said he would go on to be a world-class coach, they would have been marched off to Cherry Farm. Yet before he even stopped playing, Aaron Mauger was apparently going to be a great coach. It is very hard to judge who will go where and how high.
Best talkers? Aaron Smith, Brad Thorn, Hayden Triggs, Elliot Dixon — who got a lot better.
But it is not about talking in sport — it is about delivering on the paddock.
The Highlanders with one title maybe have not delivered enough. But they are still the team for the South, and yours truly will keep on watching no matter what the scoreboard says.
