Haskell to play in Super 15 for Highlanders

CJhaughey

Fair play, not many NH forwards playing in the SH these days.
I hope it goes well for him
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/5895590/Highlanders-score-England-No-8-James-Haskell

Hagz

I genuinely do hope it goes well for him also.

Podge_irl

I thought the Kiwi S15 teams had fairly strict policies on foreign players?

Anyway, it does amuse me greatly that for all the SH talk of easy rugby and easy money up north, most of the NH players to go south (some of whom have done surprisingly well) have been utterly average.

Kiwi_knock

It is a good move for him. I can see him having a very good season with the Highlanders.

Delve and Lipman had pretty impressive seasons last year with the Rebels and they were barely International standard players so it looks promising for Haskell.

GerM

Podge_irl wrote: »

I thought the Kiwi S15 teams had fairly strict policies on foreign players?

Anyway, it does amuse me greatly that for all the SH talk of easy rugby and easy money up north, most of the NH players to go south (some of whom have done surprisingly well) have been utterly average.

It's a matter of application. Plenty of the big names that have come north have been anonymous. Spencer, Rawlinson, Gear, Hayman, Van der Linde, Tuitupou, Marshall, Butch James etc. have all failed to impress people. Then you have a fringe international like Gareth Delve who has put his body on the line for a Rebels team that has been beaten week in, week out or Stan Wright that was the cornerstone of a HEC winning pack. A lot of the time it's those with something to prove or nothing to lose that impress when they move and it's the marquee names that leave people underwhelmed.

The Kiwi policy has changed in recent times to allow 2 foreign players per side.

Beery Eyed

There are still only 5 overseas players contracted to the NZ teams for this year. 3 Samoans, 1 Tongan & now Haskell. Mostly fringe players to allow for rotation in the squads.

Considering the amount of Kiwis that take up contracts with NH teams it really is impressive that they don't look to take in more to plug the gaps.

Until we can get to a similar situation with our own provinces it's difficult to see how we can consistently compete with NZ & SA. They just have so many options in nearly every position due to their depth.

irishbucsfan

It'll suit him down to the ground. S15 rugby focuses on his strengths and eliminates his glaring weaknesses