'Towelled up' Highlanders looking for quick bounce-back against Moana Pasifika

After being "towelled up" at the set-piece last week, the Highlanders have been able to inject international representatives Ethan de Groot and Jermaine Ainsley back into the starting line-up for this weekend's clash with Moana Pasifika.

De Groot came off the bench against the Crusaders last weekend while Ainsley was originally named to do the same but was a late withdrawal from the southern derby. The pair have been a relative constant for the Highlanders this season, starting their opening four games together before a combination of factors saw the combo broken up against the Blues and the Crusaders.

With All Black De Groot and former Wallaby Ainsley both out of the run-on side in Christchurch, the Crusaders dominated the Highlanders at scrum time, with the experienced Daniel Lienert-Brown and Josh Hohneck no match for Joe Moody and Fletcher Newell.

Speaking to media this week, former All Blacks prop and current Highlanders assistant coach Clarke Dermody acknowledged that the team simply had not performed well enough at the set-piece in their most recent fixture.

"Against the Crusaders we got absolutely towelled up at scrum time," Dermody said.

"We probably didn't adapt to what they were doing in the first half. We talked about it at halftime and I think we finished pretty strong in that game, around our scrum, but we've got to be on from the start to be able to put teams under pressure."

Lienert-Brown and Hohneck have both been left out of the matchday 23 to face Moana Pasifika. With De Groot and Ainsley back in the starting side, the scrum will certainly be shored up, while Dermody suggested that the Highlanders also took a number of lessons out of their clash with the Crusaders - though not just in the set-piece.

"I feel like we've really grown out of that game," he said. "Had a pretty good review around the forwards, where we need to be better. Sent some clips off to the referees to get a bit of clarity on what we could be better at, so that was great.

"What are we focussing on [this week]? Just all of our game, we're just trying to sharpen up everything. 2 per cent better everywhere and we start converting opportunities and we start putting teams away."

Dermody, who played three tests for the All Blacks in 2006, also praised the efforts of young prop Saula Ma'u, who has been training with the Highlanders for a number of years but wasn't able to take the field until recently due to an ongoing run of unfortunate injuries which also prevented him from building any experience with Otago in the NPC.

"I'm absolutely stoked for Saula," Dermody said. "He's actually learning his rugby game playing Super Rugby because there's no other competition at the moment to play in. He's missed two years of NPC rugby, hasn't really played much club footy either.

"What he's doing is learning a lot off the older guys in the team. I know Josh Hohneck has done some awesome work with him behind the scenes on the computers. He gets to scrum Ethan most weeks as well so he's been put under pressure. It's exciting to see him grow so quickly [but] don't want to get ahead of ourselves because he's a young prop and there's a long way to go."

Ma'u will come off the bench against Moana Pasifika, having done so twice previously this season against the Hurricanes and Crusaders.

The clash between the Highlanders and Moana Pasifika will kick off at 7:05pm NZT on Friday evening from Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin.