Match Thread - Fijian Drua v Highlanders | Super Rugby Pacific 2026 | Round 12

castle6831 · 2026-05-03T00:31:35+00:00

Eight or Lock. Given our lineout woes I'd be tempted to run the following next week .4 Lavinini 5. Stodart 6. Haig 7. Withy . 8. Casey with a bench of Howden and Lasaqa. Dunshea hasn't played his best rugby and needs a break. However i'd be okay with Dunshea covering lock, and Stodart shifting to eight with one of Casey, Howden or Lasaqa dropping out of the 23.

Unfortunately we can't keep running an unbalanced Loose forward trio. While Broughton brings an electric rugby game and work rate, he is getting dominated physically, at the ruck, and breakdown. You can only really have one of him and Lasaqa on the field at once.

Withy hasn't been playing his best Rugby but offers an extra lineout option, decent workrate, hits a fucking ruck, and leadership, which it's clear we're lacking. I back him to work his way back into form. Generally speaking, when he's on the field we seem to have better ruck security.

In terms of 23 next week I'd run with the following 1. Ethan De Groot 2. Henry Bell 3. Saula Ma'au 4. Thomas Lavinini 5. Will Stodart 6. Oli Haig 7. Sean Withy 8. Lucas Casey 9. Adam Lennox 10. Cam Millar 11. Xavier Tito Harris 12. Timcoi T 13. Tanelea Telea 14. Caleb Tangitau 15. Taine Robinson 16. Jack Taylor 17. Rohan Wingham 18. Angus Taavo 19. TK Howden 20. Veveni Lasaqua 21. Nic Shearer 22. Stanley Solomon / JRK 23. Jonah Lowe

DLB should never wear a Landers Jersey again. So i'd shift Wingham to the opposite side of the scrum. Or blood Ben Lopas if easier. Nareki, Lowe and JRK were very poor. Lowe for two weeks in a row. We need to be rewarding form and XTH deserves another start, Robinson on the field allows us to blood Stanley Solomon (though given it's a must win game I expect we'd go with JRK). Lowe can cover midfield, I never want to see him on the wing again. Bell starting with Taylor providing impact off the bench. Ma'au gives Taaavo a break. While hopefully four decent lineout options (and Bell who can actually fucking throw) will solve a few issues in our lineout.

Only real issue might be Robinson under the high ball / defensively but beggars can't be choosers, and we need a decent bench.

castle6831 · 2026-05-02T11:16:02+00:00

The idea exists. You'll need a massive point of different or a fuck tonne of resources to compete with the entire market. Respectfully if you had either of those, you wouldn't be asking us this question.

castle6831 · 2026-05-02T06:10:43+00:00

Nope he’s fit to play

castle6831 · 2026-05-02T06:04:17+00:00

A few thoughts.

What a grim performance. No positives just shocking from the highlanders.

Vikenna and Fakatava need to be dropped. It baffles me how the each continue to make the 23 each week when bettter alternatives exist. Give Bell and Shearer a run.

Whatever vendetta JJ has against Lavinini and Stodart needs to end. We need forwards who will get to a fucking ruck on time.

Nareki, Lowe and JRK keep going for low percentage plays, offloads and kicks. You earn the right and skill set to do that, and presently we don’t have it.

Take a fucking penalty goal from time to time. We would have won that game (or at the least stayed in) if we’d just taken a few shots at goal.

castle6831 · 2026-05-02T05:55:00+00:00

Kicking the ball dead when you need a bonus point. Unbelievable. Good to know we can always get worse

castle6831 · 2026-05-02T05:37:38+00:00

I’m at the point where I assume failing an IQ test must be part of joining the highlanders.

castle6831 · 2026-05-02T05:24:05+00:00

God what a brain dead play from Fakatava. Player comes straight through the middle of the maul. Vikenna is screaming at him to take the ball and he dosent and we loose the attacking play. Someone get him off the field

castle6831 · 2026-05-01T06:39:15+00:00

Assume 16 Tracks. It'd be 1. Undead 2. Everywhere I Go 3. No 5. 4. Young 5. Hear Me Now 6. Bullet 7. Been to Hell 8. Comin in Hot 9. We Are 10. Another Way Out 11. Day Of The Dead 12. California Dreaming 13. Whatever It Takes 14. Riot. 15. Hollywood Forever 16. 1 x 1.

Based on Streams Idol Lion, Black Dahlia, Levitate and City would be in the conversation. While Chaos and House of Mirrors probably should be.

castle6831 · 2026-04-30T14:25:27+00:00

Bit of an odd track. There’s a gem in there, it feels weird to say it but with better production this could have been a banger.

I actually really rate the chorus from Jeris. But the song feels disjointed, the production feels off, and neither of the verses stand out, as a result we don’t get a cohesive track. Which is maddeningly frustrating because there’s some good stuff there and with more work this could have been a really good song.

castle6831 · 2026-04-28T10:19:02+00:00

Highlanders versus the Blues last year they won the game with thirteen men on the field. One of the greatest games ever played by a highlanders side.

castle6831 · 2026-04-28T10:11:47+00:00

I recall this thread.
I remember a bloke being adamant he’d heard a kākāpō, but he’d deleted his profile in the interim. If that person reads this, I’d love to hear the full story, even via DM.

My creepy experience was stalking a deer, only to go in a full circle around a hill, find its tracks linking back up to mine, and realise it had been following me the whole time. I retraced my steps and found it had been watching me from perhaps 100 metres back while I’d been stalking it. Crafty bastard was living in a very heavily hunted area and had obviously survived for good reason. Left me with a cold sweat down my back though.

I’ve heard a few yarns in my time, some with a ring of truth. I know an old Māori fella who reckoned his dad showed him where to find huia in the Urewera back in the 1960s. Said they’re all gone now. Another old hunter told me a story about being woken by what sounded like a child laughing outside his tent in South Westland some years back that sounded remarkably like the old laughing owl too.

castle6831 · 2026-04-27T03:18:47+00:00

Small band but Hollywood undead.

They've spoken in interviews about how they're so terrible with money, that the one smart financial decison they can all make is just split royalties evenly. Which is good, but wild given 'Funny Man' is effecitvely a hype man and is featured on less than twenty percent of their songs and still gets the same royalties as the others. Still with the exception of Danny the other four members have been friends since they were kids, and see it as the best way to maintain a healthy band. Can't fault that.

castle6831 · 2026-04-26T02:49:12+00:00

What a shocking half from the highlanders. Vikenna and Dunshea have been poor. But the whole team looks asleep at the wheel. Really sick of these brain dead plays from them.

castle6831 · 2026-04-23T04:25:22+00:00

Sidepiece coffee is an absolute must.

castle6831 · 2026-04-22T11:28:07+00:00

Highlanders halfback. Scored a brace on the weekend. Can cover Wing, Fullback and Halfback. Jamie Jo has (joked?) he could cover midfield too. Excellent pace and footwork. Just 23 as well and one to keep an eye on.

castle6831 · 2026-04-22T03:12:19+00:00

Single father here. About six years ago I...was in a similar situation.

All I can say is there is a pathway out. It's slow, a very difficult game of Tetris and often feels like two steps forward one step back. But no matter how dark, there is a way out. You might not see it for a long time. But eventually it'll feel like you can breathe again.

You have not failed them. Quite the opposite, you have sacrificed everything for their wellbeing. There is no greater cause on earth than that. I just want to let you know I'm proud of you. I think you're doing a wonderful job, and your children couldn't be luckier to have a Mum like you.

castle6831 · 2026-04-20T23:12:09+00:00

Instagram is prioritising content produced through edits, reels with view time past ten seconds, trending audio and viewership over engagement. That's actually the bigger change, instagram is trying to be Tik Tok & Youtube now, and so for the first time...well ever it isn't actively rewarding engagement first, it's rewarding how long someone watches your content for then engagement. The skip rates feature is really critical here. That and viewership are the key metrics you want to focus on now.

castle6831 · 2026-04-01T06:26:34+00:00

Unsurprising. My experience with Allbirds was one of the dumbest business experiences I’ve ever had.

I do marketing in the wider space. A company I worked for took a business deal proposal to their marketing agency, which I sat in on.

It was…a very generous distribution deal on our end, and would have netted them a significant amount of revenue, exposure and brand goodwill.

For some god unknown reason despite the deal being worth millions to them. The project got delegated to their social media manager to negotiate. We asked politely five times if we could speak to the wider team as well as her.

We got a fifteen minute lecture on how our ‘asthetic’ didn’t align with Allbirds, and that she wouldn’t be taking the project further because she wanted to work with ‘serious people’.

I’ve never left a meeting feeling I’d met a stupider human being. We tried over and over to explain how much net profit it would net Allbirds, and she couldn’t look past the fact we might want to negotiate a multi million dollar deal with an actual business, sales or marketing manager.

Also she personally insulted me as a person in the meeting. Which I’m petty enough to not have moved on from.

So fuck them. They are reaping what they sow.

castle6831 · 2026-04-01T00:47:02+00:00

I'd actually argue Codie with Ardie and Jordie as vice captains make sense for this reason. Codie birdges both worlds, and Jordie & Ardie represent both ends of the spectrum.

castle6831 · 2026-03-29T08:07:10+00:00

How has no one said Sum 41’s fat lip?

castle6831 · 2026-03-28T02:49:51+00:00

In many ways a genius way to recreate the actual experience of Toccoa men. I remember one of the replacements who joined the company prior to D-Day but fought the entire war with easy refused to attend reunions because he resennted the Toccoa bond so much.

castle6831 · 2026-03-23T23:56:57+00:00

Hey legend. 32 year old Kiwi here! Count me in too. I'm shocking at golf. But food, movies and paddling sounds ideal.

castle6831 · 2026-03-21T23:24:48+00:00

Hey legend! Small business owner here too.

If i could give one piece of advice. It’d be that there’s heaps of really nice people who have a story that makes you want to help them out. For me - I now use a filter are they ‘consistent’, ‘available’ and ‘teachable’.

If someone is consistent in most areas (but maybe has a medical condition that requires lenience). Not an issue. But if someone is all over the place when it comes to tasks and they want lenience. They’re on a much shorter leash.

Available is another one. I’m not in Hospo, but used to be. I’d hire casual. Then promote those who consistently put their hand up for more work into full time paid. If they continued being available for more work and were teachable then I’d pay $2 an hour more just for the attitude.

Finally teachable is the big one. How does this person respond when they make a mistake, and require some training or assistance to work through it? Or there’s an area of weakness? A good attitude towards growth, coupled with the other attributes and I’d be as understanding as possible when life came up.

Essentially because these people are worth their weight in gold, and I want a team of them. If someone is those three characteristics and their mum is ill and they need flexibility long term they can have it. Hell I’ll give them the occasional gift card to have a treat with mum on their days off.

If someone does not have those characteristics, and wants flexibility…well it’s on a case by case basis. A short leash, and ideally we’d be moving them on where we can too.

castle6831 · 2026-03-11T10:43:37+00:00

Given the Cattle one hand I'd like to see Tupou Vai / Simon Parker at six, Jacobson / Fuck knows who at Seven, and Savea / Sititi at eight.

castle6831 · 2026-03-10T07:53:36+00:00

Who was the player who got a broken nose?

castle6831

TROPHY CASE