Highlanders set to unleash Squire against Bulls
SUPER RUGBY SPOTLIGHT: The Highlanders will get a few key players back for their crucial Super Rugby clash against the Bulls in Dunedin on Friday.
All Blacks blindside flank Liam Squire could make his first appearance of the season.
Meanwhile, wing Tevita Li and forward Jackson Hemopo are also available for selection this week.
The Highlanders could also have fullback Ben Smith back for their final league game a week later,
“He [Squire] is really excited and is giving everyone a lot of stick and that normally means he is in a pretty good space,” Highlanders assistant coach Mark Hammett told allblacks.com
“We know Liam is a game-changer, a guy we all like playing with. He is a guy who brings guys along with him.”
The Highlanders are currently in 12th position in the overall standings, but with only seven points separating fifth and 13th in the standings the Highlanders know that two wins from their final two games could be enough for a play-off place,
After their match against the Bulls, the Highlanders will finish the season against the Waratahs in Invercargill.
“So that means a lot of us are desperate…the goal is to win the next two weeks, but we have to break that down into how we can do that. We have already been talking about playing longer, going deeper for longer, with or without the ball.
“It means playing for longer, being in those spots where you have to go deep into yourself and the guy beside you. I’m 100 percent confident we can do that. That is how we are training,” Hammett added.
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Highlanders captain Ash Dixon knows that his team will have to lift their game to deal with the Bulls’ physicality
“We know when we get our footy right we are pretty hard to stop. But there has not been enough of it this year. There has been some good first-half footy but [we’ve been] missing out at the back end of games.
“If we did manage to get a chance a couple of weeks down the track and it is finals footy…anything can happen. But it is just about this week and what we can do,” he said.
Source: @AllBlacks
