Highlanders lock Fabian Holland works on his rehabilitation at team headquarters yesterday. Photo: Highlanders Fabian Holland has never met the new All Blacks coach but is hoping to take a trip to South Africa with him later this year. The young Highlanders star has a laser focus as he works through a rehabilitation period after shoulder surgery ruled him out of the entire Super Rugby season. Holland, the World Rugby breakthrough player of the year, was pleased to see a decision finally made when Dave Rennie was unveiled as the replacement for the sacked Scott Robertson. "I’ve actually never met Dave," Holland told the Otago Daily Times. "I guess I just know his reputation and from what I’ve heard from people around me, and everything is really positive. "I’ve heard a lot of good things about him so, yeah, I’m psyched." Holland confirmed his hope was to be fit and firing by the time the All Blacks left for the Greatest Rivalry tour of South Africa in early August. "We’ve been doing a bit of planning and we’re aiming to be ready for selection for the South African tour. "Everything is sort of divided up into different blocks, but that’s the aim. We will see how I progress through those stages. "I’m just going to control what I can control, and at the moment that’s my rehab and how I approach that." Holland suffered a dislocated shoulder shortly after coming off the bench in the Highlanders’ preseason game against Moana Pasifika in Queenstown on Waitangi Day. It looked fairly innocuous at first, but he knew it was not good. Fabian Holland. Photo: New Zealand Rugby "Adrenaline helped me a wee bit at first. "But when I lifted up my shoulder, I thought, oh yeah, that’s not where it’s supposed to be." His rehabilitation had been going smoothly, Holland said. "The surgery went well and I’m just on the end of my healing phase now. "I’ve got a really good medical team around me, both at the Highlanders and my surgeon in Christchurch. "Everything’s going good. I’ve just been taking it easy for a couple of weeks and I’m slowly getting into the swing of things and getting the shoulder slowly moving again." The Highlanders have missed their towering Dutch lock, and he has missed them. Holland hates not being on the field but feels his team-mates are showing promise as they attempt to kick on from a 2-3 record to start the season. "The games that they’ve lost have been quite close games, but the Reds one stung a bit. "Last week in Christchurch, we felt like that one slipped through our hands a wee bit. It felt like we had the upper hand most of the game but let it go in the second half. "It’s hard for me to see the boys going to war and putting their bodies on the line and not being able to do anything. "I just try to help out wherever I can behind the scenes, and I’m proud of them and where they are after five rounds. I think we’re trending in the right direction." hayden.meikle@odt.co.nz
