Rugby: Highlanders squad has high expectations

Jamie Joseph
Jamie Joseph
It is not only fans who have increased expectations for the Highlanders next season.

The players themselves, along with coaches and management, have their eyes firmly set on some lofty goals and know they must not go backwards after signs of promise last season.

The Highlanders assemble in Dunedin this weekend and get into training on Monday.

It is a much earlier start for the side after not getting together last year until December 13. But with the World Cup, the off-season has been moved forward and most players have not played a game for more than two months.

Highlanders general manager Roger Clark said it was an earlier start than usual but the season would quickly come around.

"Before you know it, the games will be upon us, but compared to last year we are a lot better prepared. Everything had been a bit of a rush last year to get ready but this year we've had a bit more time to get things planned and put things in place," Clark said.

"The good thing is we have a lot of continuity from last year. We are not starting from scratch. And that is a huge thing. I do know in the business of sport to get results you have to have continuity. We hope that will show this year in improved results."

Head coach Jamie Joseph has been busy planning over the past couple of months and finalising his squad. He was in Wellington yesterday at a New Zealand Rugby Union leadership course involving horses.

Many of the squad have had operations since the end of the ITM Cup to fix injuries, with the most serious being captain Jamie Mackintosh and first five-eighth Colin Slade.

Mackintosh had been battling an osteitis pubis complaint all last season and finally had an operation on the injury after the end of the ITM Cup season with Southland.

The big prop will have a slow introduction into training but, everything going well, should be available for the first pre-season game against the Crusaders in Greymouth on February 3.

Slade had a horror run of injuries last season, copping two broken jaws during the Super 15 season before injuring his groin playing for the All Blacks during the World Cup.

He then picked up an infection from an injection used to determine the extent of his groin injury last month. That infection forced him into hospital for a few days but he was expected to be back running by the end of the month and be available for the pre-season matches.

The Highlanders finished eighth last year after a great start when they won seven of their first nine matches, only to fall off the pace at the tail end of the season.

But with the signings of players such as Hosea Gear, Andrew Hore and Tamati Ellison, and then the move to the new Forsyth Barr Stadium, there is some expectation on the side to get into the playoffs.

But that pressure was also coming from within, Clark said.

"We have got high expectations ourselves, along with the public. But there is a big difference between expectations and delivering. But we know we want to do the best we can from now until the end of February to be ready for the start of the season."

The Highlanders do not have an easy draw to start the season. Their first game is against the Chiefs in Hamilton, a traditional graveyard for the southern team.

The side then returns to play the Crusaders and Waratahs at the new stadium.

Those players involved with the World Cup are on leave and will not rejoin the squad until January 9, when the Highlanders get together after their Christmas break. The players disband on December 23.

Sandy Webb has been replaced as the team's doctor by Hamish Osborne, while Kees Meeuws is the side's new scrum coach, taking over the reins from Steve Cumberland.

 

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