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Highlanders head coach Aaron Mauger on bereavement leave
By Online Editors
The Highlanders will be without head coach Aaron Mauger for another week.
Assistant coach Mark Hammett told Stuff the former All Blacks midfielder has been in Christchurch with his mother, who passed away during the Highlanders' 18-15 win against the Reds on Saturday night.
Hammett confirmed that Mauger wouldn't take part in preparations as his side get ready to host the Hurricanes on Friday night, but was hopeful he would be at the match.
"We imagine that the funeral will be Wednesday or Thursday. He would like to be back with us for the game, but we're putting no pressure on him. It's just about him doing what he needs to do and being with family."
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Hammett has been acting as head coach in the interim, overseeing the Highlanders for their win against the Reds - their first at Suncorp Stadium and their first in Brisbane since 2005.
The Highlanders will be without seven of their All Blacks when they take on Hammett's former team in a New Zealand conference clash. Hammett coached the Hurricanes from 2011 to 2014.
Ben Smith, Aaron Smith, Shannon Frizell, Liam Squire, Luke Whitelock, Waisake Naholo and Liam Coltman will all be attending a three-day All Blacks camp in Christchurch as preparations for next month's three-test series against France continue.
Hammett labelled last week "hugely disruptive" following the All Blacks camp in Auckland, mandated All Black rest periods and the absence of Mauger.
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Latest Comments
Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".
But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.
The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.
Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?
Go to commentsI think they just need to judge better when it's on and when it's not. If there is a disjointed chase and WJ has a forward in front of him and some space to work with then he should have a crack every time.
If the chase is perfect and the defence is numbered up then it needs to get sent back. From memory they have not really developed a plan for what to do if they take the ball on/in the 22 with a good chase and no counter attacking opportunity.
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