Highlanders 2026
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@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?
@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
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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?
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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
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Surprising amount of tickets available still (yes its still 5 days out)
before even they will even considering opening the north standHas closing off the north stand until a certain point of ticket sales put people off going to games? Or bigger issues at play here?
@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 standHas 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.
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looks like the north stand is open now, middle block at least
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@reprobate hes been playing mostly centre for us the last season or two
@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).
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@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).
@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
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@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
@Kiwiwomble said in Highlanders 2026:
@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
You're a FR, we all look the same to you
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Looking at some of the clips and pics on social media. It looks like Lucas Casey could be in the starting loose trio.
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Looking at some of the clips and pics on social media. It looks like Lucas Casey could be in the starting loose trio.
@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
Looking at some of the clips and pics on social media. It looks like Lucas Casey could be in the starting loose trio.
Or hopefully they’ve gone for a 6-2 bench and he’s wearing the 21 jersey, which would be great
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@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
Looking at some of the clips and pics on social media. It looks like Lucas Casey could be in the starting loose trio.
Or hopefully they’ve gone for a 6-2 bench and he’s wearing the 21 jersey, which would be great
@jimmyb said in Highlanders 2026:
@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
Looking at some of the clips and pics on social media. It looks like Lucas Casey could be in the starting loose trio.
Or hopefully they’ve gone for a 6-2 bench and he’s wearing the 21 jersey, which would be great
The kick off drill had him running beside Millar and Howden on the otherside.
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@jimmyb said in Highlanders 2026:
@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
Looking at some of the clips and pics on social media. It looks like Lucas Casey could be in the starting loose trio.
Or hopefully they’ve gone for a 6-2 bench and he’s wearing the 21 jersey, which would be great
The kick off drill had him running beside Millar and Howden on the otherside.
@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
@jimmyb said in Highlanders 2026:
@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
Looking at some of the clips and pics on social media. It looks like Lucas Casey could be in the starting loose trio.
Or hopefully they’ve gone for a 6-2 bench and he’s wearing the 21 jersey, which would be great
The kick off drill had him running beside Millar and Howden on the otherside.
Oh wow ok that’s a ballsy decision. I like it.
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@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
@jimmyb said in Highlanders 2026:
@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
Looking at some of the clips and pics on social media. It looks like Lucas Casey could be in the starting loose trio.
Or hopefully they’ve gone for a 6-2 bench and he’s wearing the 21 jersey, which would be great
The kick off drill had him running beside Millar and Howden on the otherside.
Oh wow ok that’s a ballsy decision. I like it.
@jimmyb said in Highlanders 2026:
@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
@jimmyb said in Highlanders 2026:
@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
Looking at some of the clips and pics on social media. It looks like Lucas Casey could be in the starting loose trio.
Or hopefully they’ve gone for a 6-2 bench and he’s wearing the 21 jersey, which would be great
The kick off drill had him running beside Millar and Howden on the otherside.
Oh wow ok that’s a ballsy decision. I like it.
Might be looking to have our own Henry Pollock at the boot of the scrum.
Also DSPN has Holland out for either all of Super or nearly all of it.
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@jimmyb said in Highlanders 2026:
@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
@jimmyb said in Highlanders 2026:
@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
Looking at some of the clips and pics on social media. It looks like Lucas Casey could be in the starting loose trio.
Or hopefully they’ve gone for a 6-2 bench and he’s wearing the 21 jersey, which would be great
The kick off drill had him running beside Millar and Howden on the otherside.
Oh wow ok that’s a ballsy decision. I like it.
Might be looking to have our own Henry Pollock at the boot of the scrum.
Also DSPN has Holland out for either all of Super or nearly all of it.
@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
@jimmyb said in Highlanders 2026:
@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
@jimmyb said in Highlanders 2026:
@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
Looking at some of the clips and pics on social media. It looks like Lucas Casey could be in the starting loose trio.
Or hopefully they’ve gone for a 6-2 bench and he’s wearing the 21 jersey, which would be great
The kick off drill had him running beside Millar and Howden on the otherside.
Oh wow ok that’s a ballsy decision. I like it.
Might be looking to have our own Henry Pollock at the boot of the scrum.
Also DSPN has Holland out for either all of Super or nearly all of it.
This post deserves a down vote. Massive loss for the Highlanders, especially after losing Pledger already.
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Going into the season without
Ma'u - first choice tighthead
Holland - first choice lock
Renton - captain
Pledger- one of the best young players in the game
Hurley - likely bench impact playerJust over 20% of our top 23 out injured. We don't have rhe depth to lose players of that level.
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Going into the season without
Ma'u - first choice tighthead
Holland - first choice lock
Renton - captain
Pledger- one of the best young players in the game
Hurley - likely bench impact playerJust over 20% of our top 23 out injured. We don't have rhe depth to lose players of that level.
@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
Going into the season without
Ma'u - first choice tighthead
Holland - first choice lock
Renton - captain
Pledger- one of the best young players in the game
Hurley - likely bench impact playerJust over 20% of our top 23 out injured. We don't have rhe depth to lose players of that level.
JJ also seemed to suggest Pledger would be out for the NPC season as well
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Going into the season without
Ma'u - first choice tighthead
Holland - first choice lock
Renton - captain
Pledger- one of the best young players in the game
Hurley - likely bench impact playerJust over 20% of our top 23 out injured. We don't have rhe depth to lose players of that level.
@SouthernMann given these outside of Hammington any new additions to the WTG?
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Going into the season without
Ma'u - first choice tighthead
Holland - first choice lock
Renton - captain
Pledger- one of the best young players in the game
Hurley - likely bench impact playerJust over 20% of our top 23 out injured. We don't have rhe depth to lose players of that level.
@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2026:
Going into the season without
Ma'u - first choice tighthead
Holland - first choice lock
Renton - captain
Pledger- one of the best young players in the game
Hurley - likely bench impact playerJust over 20% of our top 23 out injured. We don't have rhe depth to lose players of that level.
while true Ma'u was selected more often than not for us last year I just feel he's overated, the Pari Parkinson of props. comes down from a Auckland school and gets postive press because he's a big unit but for my money Rohan Wingham will end up being better than Ma'u
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Far from perfect, but man it is good to get off the mark with the win. I won’t get carried away yet, but I think you have to take some belief that that performance can translate into more wins down the line because of how good we were defensively.
I would look for consistency against the Chiefs next week, though if Lavanini gets through the Bravehearts game okay; then he comes onto the bench for me.
