Resting Highlanders another Super twist

Halfback Aaron Smith will also sit out and dodge a duel with TJ Perenara. Photo / Getty Images

Into the spotlight for the Highlanders and exit stage left. In another twist to the skew-whiff Super 15 set-up, the Highlanders will rest half of their brilliant back four for the top-of-the- table meeting with the Hurricanes.

World Cup requests mean Ben Smith and Malakai Fekitoa will bypass Friday's match in Napier, although Fekitoa was a doubtful starter after he injured his leg in the 36-9 drubbing of the Chiefs.

Halfback Aaron Smith will also sit out and dodge a duel with TJ Perenara as sides adhere to player breaks arranged in pre-season talks with the All Black selectors.

Theory offers the Highlanders the tournament lead after the final two rounds. Reality, though, suggests the Canes will pick up at least a bonus point against the Highlanders and Chiefs to pick up that title.

So Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph has opted to rest his men now and have them primed for work in the match leading into the playoffs.

Who would argue with him or his coaching staff who have pulled together a combative crew to go out each week and deliver? They did that in truckloads in difficult conditions against a depleted Chiefs side in Invercargill. The absence of Liam Messam, Brodie Retallick, Sonny Bill Williams, James Lowe, Aaron Cruden, Ben Afeakai, Matt Symons and Nathan Harris cut the visitors' heft.

But the Highlanders were missing seven injured forwards and got the business done all over Rugby Park in Invercargill. Chilly mist and a soft surface were a throwback which the Highlanders absorbed and the Chiefs mistrusted. It was bonus try time for the hosts and an all-day trip home yesterday for the unhappy Chiefs.

The Highlanders pack got stuck in and their backs, fed by the unstoppable Aaron Smith, brought too many questions for the Chiefs to answer.

Quite how Smith can talk throughout a match while running kilometres, firing out volleys of passes mixed in with some snipes and kicks, is the stuff to be bottled.

Lima Sopoaga would be the starting five eighths for half the sides going to this year's World Cup while Richard Buckman has brought new vigour to midfield since his return from injury and shift from the wing.

There's no room there anyway with possible All Blacks Waisake Naholo and Patrick Osborne dominating the flanks where their pace, power and work history carries a danger sign for any rivals.

Mix in the energy of All Blacks Fekitoa and Ben Smith and there's venom throughout.

It's not a scattergun attack. Assistant coaches Tony Brown and Scott McLeod have schooled their men strongly and got them to value timing, accuracy and restraint.

You had to love the way Osborne, in the final stages, stood well outside the left touchline almost in the first row of the crowd, to begin his attack on to a Sopoaga crosskick. It didn't quite work but the concept was something the Chiefs would admire.

In most games they add new bits of icing, substantial and decorative. This time they never got to mull on those layers as the Highlanders drilled into their foundations.