First-year Highlanders head coach Clarke Dermody has pleaded for patience, and a little bit of top-end talent if there’s any floating about, as he looks to restore the southern franchise to a more lofty perch in the Super Rugby Pacific pecking order.
Dermody’s Highlanders wrapped up their regular season with a gritty, if limited, performance in a 16-9 defeat to the Blues at Eden Park on Friday night that consigned them to a fifth straight losing campaign, with their 5-9 record, and 24 competition points, not enough even for a quarterfinal spot.
The ‘Landers were nudged out of the eighth and final playoffs position by the Drua’s 41-17 victory over the Reds in Suva on Saturday, meaning champion halfback Aaron Smith has now played his last game for the franchise.
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Highlanders coach Clarke Dermody says he needs time to build a competitive Siuper Rugby franchise.
It has been another inglorious season for the southerners, especially when measured against their fellow Kiwi franchises. The Blues defeat lifted their winless streak against New Zealand sides to 16, with their last victory coming back in April of 2021. They have now lost six on the bounce and nine of their last 10 against the Aucklanders.
What’s more they’re losing arguably their two best players, with All Blacks Smith and Shannon Frizell both heading off to Japan once their 2023 seasons wrap up. Others are set to follow.
“We’ve learnt a lot through this year,” said Dermody. “Our younger boys have been exposed to Super Rugby. Our whole squad has played, including injury replacements, and it’s just consistency and the physicality required to beat the New Zealand teams consistently that’s the key.
“We competed for long periods, but probably didn’t quite have the polish to take our opportunities. We can do it for periods of games, but we can’t quite do it for 80 minutes yet. That’s where we need to go.”
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Folau Fakatava and the Highlanders took it to the Blues at Eden Park on Friday night.
Dermody was asked if a more equitable dispersement of New Zealand’s talent might help create a more level playing field.
“It’s more time,” he replied. “We wouldn’t say no if people are going to give up some players not getting games. Over the last 2-3 years the club has been investing in a high performance programme with some young guys. We’ve exposed a few this year, and over the next 2-3 years we have a good group of young guys coming through.
“It’s a matter of doing it the right way and having experienced guys with them to help them through. We’re very conscious of not just chucking a young team out next year.
“We’re probably behind others, because teams like the Crusaders have been doing it for 10 years, and we’ve only been doing it for two or three. We’re starting to see the Cam Millars, Fabian Hollands, Saula Ma’us, Sean Witheys come through. But you’ve got to get them games because they’re good rugby players, but it doesn’t mean they’re going to be good at Super Rugby straight away.”
The coach also revealed the gruelling slugfest the Blues match turned into had been just as they had planned it.
“That’s what we needed,” he said. “We planned to make it as ugly as we could. We copped a hiding round 1 from trying to play too much and gifting the Blues opportunities. The plan was make it ugly, keep close and win the game late. We nearly got there, but couldn’t quite execute in the last 10 minutes.”
Dermody also had a warning for the Waratahs ahead of their quarterfinal against the Blues at Eden Park.
“They’re an easy team to preview but a hard team [to play] because you know what’s going to happen,” he said of the Auckland side. “They hold the ball more than anyone, and any time it goes past 12 you hold your breath because of the threats they’ve got.
“That’s what happened tonight – we kept them under pressure for periods, then someone would slip out of a tackle and then they’re entering our 22. Rangi (Leon MacDonald) has got them playing well.”
