Highlanders 2026

cala7x

Surprising amount of tickets available still (yes its still 5 days out)
before even they will even considering opening the north stand

Has closing off the north stand until a certain point of ticket sales put people off going to games? Or bigger issues at play here?

jimmyb

@frugby said in Highlanders 2026:

Some good news published in the Post this morning. They are refusing to scratch Holland for this week which indicates no ligament damage, so just a straight dislocation.

I really hope they don’t rush him back. I dislocated by shoulder, popped it in, three weeks later dislocated it again playing club rugby and it took 2-3 years to feel normal. The shoulder joint and surrounding tendons need time to recover. The standard medical recovery period for a non athlete is about six months. If he plays in the next 4-5 games, the medical staff need to be fired.

frugby

@jimmyb said in Highlanders 2026:

@frugby said in Highlanders 2026:

Some good news published in the Post this morning. They are refusing to scratch Holland for this week which indicates no ligament damage, so just a straight dislocation.

I really hope they don’t rush him back. I dislocated by shoulder, popped it in, three weeks later dislocated it again playing club rugby and it took 2-3 years to feel normal. The shoulder joint and surrounding tendons need time to recover. The standard medical recovery period for a non athlete is about six months. If he plays in the next 4-5 games, the medical staff need to be fired.

That recovery period assumes ligament damage - which there is none.

I wouldn’t expect to see him in the first four games but you never know.

jimmyb

@frugby said in Highlanders 2026:

@jimmyb said in Highlanders 2026:

@frugby said in Highlanders 2026:

Some good news published in the Post this morning. They are refusing to scratch Holland for this week which indicates no ligament damage, so just a straight dislocation.

I really hope they don’t rush him back. I dislocated by shoulder, popped it in, three weeks later dislocated it again playing club rugby and it took 2-3 years to feel normal. The shoulder joint and surrounding tendons need time to recover. The standard medical recovery period for a non athlete is about six months. If he plays in the next 4-5 games, the medical staff need to be fired.

That recovery period assumes ligament damage - which there is none.

I wouldn’t expect to see him in the first four games but you never know.

If it is a pure uncomplicated shoulder dislocation the recovery period is still 10-12 weeks and that’s assuming no contact sport. The highlanders have a horrific history of managing injures so this can’t be a repeat of that negligence

frugby

I'm feeling confident this season. Last year ended really bad, but it is easy to forget how well things actually started. The first six games were good, and it was not until the Western Force game where things really went off the boil.

In that game Withy got a red card and missed the next three games. Tangitau got injured and never played again. Couple of unavailabilities to a thin squad, confidence goes, and it is amazing what happens.

Nogusta

@handa457 said in Highlanders 2026:

Few talking points for me after today’s game

Wingham or Kautaui? Which gets the nod for the bench spot? I’ve been quite impressed by Wingham and would like to see him get a shot.

Haig was one of our best on the park today. With holland injured I’d like to see a Dunshea, Haig combo with Lavinini on the bench.

You’d have to say Bell is ahead of Vikenna for the bench spot.

Credit where it’s due Lennox looked better today. Shearer not getting a run would indicate JJ is going Lennox for bench role.

This would be my 23 for next week

Ethan De Groot

Jack Taylor

Angus Taavo

Mitchell Dunshea

Oli Haig

TK Howden

Sean Withy

Will Stodart

Folau Fakatava

Cam Millar

Jona Nareki

Timoci T

Tanelea Telea

Caleb Tangitau

Jacob Kneepkins

Henry Bell

Josh Bartlett

Rohan Wingham / Sefo Kautaui

Thomas Lavinini

Veveni Lasanga

Adam Lennox

Reesjan Pasetoa

Jonah Lowe

The fact Jim subbed on for Talea would suggest they will go with Jim and Lowe as the middies.

reprobate

@Nogusta Jeez, I wouldn't.

SouthernMann

I reckon they might see Lowe as a better distributor and defender. With the primary goal to get the ball into the hands of the back three as much as possible. They don't want the centre carrying, the goal is to get them distributing as much as possible, when on.

reprobate

@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:

I reckon they might see Lowe as a better distributor and defender. With the primary goal to get the ball into the hands of the back three as much as possible. They don't want the centre carrying, the goal is to get them distributing as much as possible, when on.

If that were the case, I still don't see Lowe as a distributor - he's played wing pretty much his whole life hasn't he?

Kiwiwomble

@reprobate hes been playing mostly centre for us the last season or two

reprobate

@Kiwiwomble said in Highlanders 2026:

@reprobate hes been playing mostly centre for us the last season or two

Wouldn't have played much in 2024 would he? Not sure how much he played last year but I thought Talea was preferred whenever fit?

SouthernMann

A bit of centre in 2024. He finished off last year on the wing after coming back from injury.

Could be that his form at the back end of last year mad him a must have and there is no room in the back three.

Kiwiwomble

@reprobate said in Highlanders 2026:

@Kiwiwomble said in Highlanders 2026:

@reprobate hes been playing mostly centre for us the last season or two

Wouldn't have played much in 2024 would he? Not sure how much he played last year but I thought Talea was preferred whenever fit?

no, did play much but when he did play he played a bit at 13 so imagine thats hwere he was training

reprobate

Yeah fair enough - for me Lowe doesn't have the pace to crack that back 3, even though he was playing really well end of last year and was good for HB in the NPC too. Just not seen enough to be convinced on his distribution at centre and thought the backline looked good when Talea was playing last year. Was it my imagination or did he look a bit trimmer in the bits I saw of the pre-season game?

Kiwiwomble

my thought was hes depth in a couple of pooisitons rather than first string

I also respect that either he, the coaches or both are trying to reshape him to fit not only how we want to play but also things like his loss of pace

KiwiMurph

@cala7x said in Highlanders 2026:

Surprising amount of tickets available still (yes its still 5 days out)
before even they will even considering opening the north stand

Has closing off the north stand until a certain point of ticket sales put people off going to games? Or bigger issues at play here?

It's not O Week until next week is it? Could be a major factor.

Kiwiwomble

looks like the north stand is open now, middle block at least

frugby

I would say ticket sales are tracking well. South stand is basically sold out, they should be looking at 16k+

Bones

@Kiwiwomble said in Highlanders 2026:

@reprobate hes been playing mostly centre for us the last season or two

You're a front rower aren't you?

Confidently stating a back mostly played in the midfield when he very rarely played in the midfield and played a lot on the wing (better than Springer too).

Kiwiwomble

@Bones not dying on the hill, i was sure we'd shuffled him infield over the last season or two after it was clear he didn't have the space, i'd missed we still had him and thought his contract was up so what do i know

edit: gone back to look and completely wrong....not sure what i was thinking and starting to doubt i watched any of last season, he started a lot more games last year than i remembered too

The Silver Fern

Highlanders 2026