{"id":280920,"date":"2023-03-25T04:41:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-25T05:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=280920"},"modified":"2023-03-25T21:00:58","modified_gmt":"2023-03-25T21:00:58","slug":"fijians-destroyed-despite-extraordinary-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=280920","title":{"rendered":"Fijians destroyed despite 'extraordinary' injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/em>This article originally appeared on Stuff and is reproduced with permission\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Highlanders shrugged off an extraordinary injury count to produce their best performance of the season against the Fijian Drua on Saturday.<\/a><\/p>\n

After losing Shannon Frizell in the warmup against the Western Force last weekend, the Highlanders were hit by no fewer than four withdrawals before kickoff on Saturday, with in-form midfielder Thomas Umaga-Jensen, Josh Timu, Hugh Renton and Josh Dickson all ruled out.<\/p>\n

Fetuli Paea and youngster Jake Te Hiwi formed a new-look midfield, with Will Tucker replacing Dickson in the middle row and Nikora Broughton coming in at No 8.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season on the home of rugby, Stan Sport. <\/strong><\/em>All matches streaming ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1639498663780323328?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

Veteran lock Josh Bekhuis and outside back Connor Garden-Bachop were included on the bench.<\/p>\n

Incredibly, Te Hiwi was then forced off after 11 minutes with an ankle injury, with Sam Gilbert moving into midfield.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite the disruptions, the Highlanders' tight five went to work against the Drua, producing a great platform for Aaron Smith to orchestrate a nine-try win.<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1639492088680304641?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

The Highlanders' backline was fizzing by the end of the contest, with confidence clearly starting to return after a tough start to the season.<\/p>\n

Predictably, the Drua capitalised early against the reshuffled Highlanders lineup, with Frank Lomani scoring after big Drua midfielder Apisalome Vota targeted Mitch Hunt on defence.<\/p>\n

However, that prompted a four-try burst from the Highlanders in response, as the southerners outworked the visitors and used their scrum and lineout drive as weapons.<\/p>\n

\"Aaron<\/p>\n

The injury Gods did not relent, with lock Pari Pari Parkinson limping off slowly after the Highlanders' fifth try on the stroke of halftime.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, he returned after the break and played on for a further 13 minutes in a sign of the resilience that summed up the Highlanders' afternoon.<\/p>\n

Young No 10 Cam Millar also got 25 valuable minutes off the bench, while 19-year-old hooker made his debut off the bench for the last 18 minutes.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Millar put the icing on the cake with the Highlanders' final try, showing good speed to finish another excellent attack.<\/p>\n

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This article originally appeared on Stuff and is reproduced with permission\ufeff The Highlanders shrugged off an extraordinary injury count to produce their best performance of […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280920"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=280920"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280922,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280920\/revisions\/280922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=280920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=280920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=280920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}