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Wales fly-half Rhys Patchell poised to make Super Rugby Pacific debut
By Josh Raisey
Wales fly-half Rhys Patchell is set to make his Super Rugby Pacific debut for the Highlanders on Saturday against Moana Pasifika in Dunedin.
The 30-year-old's one-year move to the New Zealand franchise was confirmed in July last year, and after featuring for them in pre-season he is set to make his Super Rugby debut in the opening round of the season.
The 22-cap international will partner All Blacks scrumhalf Folau Fakatava as a halfback duo, in a team that also features four more debutants.
Patchell joined his longtime Wales and Scarlets teammate Leigh Halfpenny in making the move to Super Rugby this season. The fullback joined the Crusaders after the World Cup, but suffered a pectoral muscle in a preseason match with Munster, which will leave him out of action for months.
Looking ahead to the game, Highlanders head coach Clarke Dermody said: “We’ve had a solid pre-season where we’ve witnessed healthy competition around the paddock. The players who have earned their place in the starting line-up this week have done so through their preseason performances and the coaching team and I are looking forward to seeing those performances come together on Saturday.”
Highlanders XV
1. Daniel Lienert-Brown
2. Henry Bell*
3. Saula Ma’u
4. Pari Pari Parkinson
5. Fabian Holland
6. Sean Withy
7. Billy Harmon (C)
8. Hugh Renton
9. Folau Fakatava
10. Rhys Patchell*
11. Jona Nareki
12. Sam Gilbert (VC)
13. Tanielu Tele’a*
14. Timoci Tavatavanawai*
15. Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens*
Replacements
16. Jack Taylor
17. Ayden Johnstone
18. Jermaine Ainsley
19. Oliver Haig
20. Nikora Broughton
21. Nathan Hastie
22. Cameron Millar
23. Jonah Lowe
*Highlanders debutant
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Latest Comments
After a fairly simple Pac4, the BFs will find out a lot about themselves in September when they face the rampaging RedRoses at Twickenham in front of a record crowd. After that they will face them again in Canada in WXV1. They also have France to contend with. Will be interesting to see what Australia have to offer with Jo Yapp at the helm.
Go to commentsSuper Rugby Pacific has been better as a spectacle due to the emphasis on speeding the game up and I’d look at taking things a step further. Instead of giving teams 90 seconds to take a conversion, let’s bring that down 60 seconds. You could also look at allowing 45 seconds for a penalty goal. Maybe teams could get 20 seconds instead of 30 to form a scrum before the ref then starts the engagement process. However, this year the most pleasing change is the added competitiveness in the Trans Tasman matches. What does frustrate me is how the rugby media in Australasia allow the the whole ‘‘rugby is boring’’/’’rugby yawnion’’ narrative to take hold from from vindictive league types, the chairman of the ARL commission and News Limited Australia. Stick up for the game and shift the narrative!
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