Highlanders miss out on Super Rugby Pacific playoffs after Fijian Drua book ticket

Aaron Smith and the Highlanders have seen their season end. Photo / Getty

The Highlanders have reached the end of an era.

With the Fijian Drua beating the Reds 41-17 in Suva on Saturday, the southerners were bumped from the Super Rugby Pacific top eight and sent into an early offseason.

Missing out on a spot in the playoffs, they have seen the last of Aaron Smith in a Highlanders jersey as he is set to continue his career in Japan following the Rugby World Cup later this year.

He will be joined in Japan by fellow Highlanders veterans Shannon Frizell and Marino Mikaele-Tu’u, with a lot of experience and impact leaving the team.

Smith has been a member of the Highlanders since 2011, playing in more than 180 games for the team and being a key member of their 2015 title-winning campaign. Smith was one of just four players from that team in the current Highlanders squad – alongside Daniel Lienert-Brown, James Lentjes and Marty Banks.

Both Frizell and Mikaele-Tu’u have been with the side since 2018 and established themselves as key figures in the back row; Frizell being an All Blacks regular as well.

But in 2024, the Highlanders will have some big boots to fill, and coach Clarke Dermody said this season provided some essential opportunities as they look towards the future.

“Over the last two or three years the club has been investing in, not an academy but a high-performance program with some young guys. We’ve exposed a few of them this year and over the next two or three years, we have got a good group of young guys coming through,” Dermody said.

“It’s a matter of doing that in the right way and having experienced guys with them to help them through. We’re conscious of not just chucking a young team out next year, but we’re probably just a bit behind the other teams because the other teams, ie, the Crusaders, have been doing it for 10 years.

“We’ve only been doing it for two or three, so we’re starting to see the Cam Millers, Fabian Hollands, Saula Ma’us, we’re starting to see them now. But you’ve got to get them games. Just because they’re good rugby players doesn’t mean they’re going to be good at Super Rugby straight away.”

This will be the first time since 2013 that the Highlanders have missed the playoffs of a transtasman competition, and the first playoff appearance for the Fijian Drua after they joined the competition