Bryn Gatland is set to join the Highlanders after limited game time this season. Photo / Photosport
Bryn Gatland is set to join the Highlanders after limited game time this season. Photo / Photosport
Bryn Gatland aims to be the starting No10 at the Highlanders from next year in the absence of Lima Sopoaga.
Gatland will move south from the Blues at the end of the season.
His shift makes sense because the competition in Auckland for the starting first-five's role will become much tougher when Otere Black returns from the knee injury which has wrecked his 2018 season.
Black, who would have started the season as the top-ranked playmaker, will fight for the role against incumbent Stephen Perofeta once he regains his match fitness.
The Blues will probably look to sign a developing player to replace Gatland.
Gatland, 22, signed for this year on a full contract after being a part-timer at the Blues in 2017, started at No10 for the first four matches of the season but was on the bench for the following three against the Sharks, Chiefs and Sunwolves.
He started at No10 against the Highlanders at Eden Park, with Perofeta moved to fullback, but couldn't make the match-day squad for last weekend's defeat to the Jaguares and he was left out of the mix for last night's match against the Waratahs in Sydney, with Daniel Kirkpatrick again preferred as the inside back replacement.
The Highlanders have 23-year-old Fletcher Smith as Sopoaga's back-up, so Gatland should have an easier time of staking a claim for a regular starting spot in the deep south. All Black Sopoaga is leaving for English club Wasps at the end of the year.
Gatland has performed well at times this season, and in particular in the first match against the Highlanders in Dunedin in February when he surprised with his pace and power.
He is likely to have fond memories of Forsyth Barr Stadium given that was where he helped his North Harbour side to their ITM Cup Championship final victory over Otago two years ago with a final-minute dropped goal.
With Blues coach Tana Umaga putting his faith in Perofeta, who has an excellent running and passing game, and now turning to 29-year-old Kirkpatrick for the bench role, Gatland's opportunities this season appear limited.
Tana Umaga has preferred Stephen Perofeta to Gatland for much of the season. Photo / Photosport
Asked this week where Gatland featured in his plans, Umaga said: "He's still in our thinking all the time. We're having conversations. As you can tell, we're trying to get some experience into our side at the moment. That's part of it.
"It's tough on our young men. When you talk about pressure ... I've been through that before.
"We're talking about guys who probably haven't been through that and we have to help them and support them."
In Dunedin, Gatland will link with former All Blacks second-five Aaron Mauger, who has impressed as head coach of the Highlanders in his first year coaching at this level in New Zealand.
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