Richard Loe: Highlanders renaissance very welcome

It's been a week to consider fate; the accident of being in the right place at the right time or, conversely, the wrong place at the wrong time.

When I finished a radio show in Christchurch recently, I walked outside and saw the Pyne Gould Corporation building. That was the building collapsed by the earthquake and in which Philip MacDonald worked, and died. He was a director of the Crusaders and also my accountant.

My thoughts are with his family - Philip is a sad loss and this quake has devastated so many people here; everyone is still trying to cope with it all. Some of us are even thinking about the fickleness of fate.

Philip had said to me only a few days earlier that I should come and view my accounts with him. "Come in on Monday or Tuesday," he said. I told him it would have to be another day as I would come into town from the farm with my wife Felicity, who works at a hospital there.

That's what these things can come down to - if Felicity had worked on different days, maybe I wouldn't be writing this column and mourning the loss of a friend and colleague.

However, Christchurch and Canterbury people are hardy souls and I think even this setback can be overcome eventually. You only have to look at the Highlanders to see the spirit down south at the moment.

The rugby was a welcome change from all the devastation and I have to say that Jamie Joseph is doing a fine job with them. They are probably not as individually talented a bunch as last year's team - but Joseph has got them firing.

He has come up with a simple game plan and they are believing in it. Their defence is great. That all means, while they will not win every game, they will upset a few - and it's good to see something of a Highlanders revival.

Jimmy Cowan is playing well, now that he is no longer captain, Adam Thomson is playing superbly and guys like Kendrick Lynn are playing to the pattern and doing their job. He might not be an international-class player but he does the business - and allows players like Ben Smith to chime in and test defences.

As for the Chiefs, they looked pretty awful. The problem started with selections - Isaac Ross and Hayden Triggs are not a good lock combination when it comes to doing the donkey work and I suspect the Highlanders were glad that both Ross and Triggs were no longer in their squad. They don't seem to fit with the uncompromising Joseph attitude.

The Chiefs had the better scrum but couldn't capitalise. Their loose forwards were quicker but they couldn't capitalise. Mike Delany and Tawera Kerr-Barlow started well at first five and halfback respectively - but didn't go on. Sitiveni Sivivatu doesn't exactly look a lean, mean fighting machine at present; more like Rupeni Caucaunibuca when he'd lost his diet plan.

When poor old Stephen Donald came on, he was presented with a bread-and-butter kick which should have been kicked and could have swayed the game.

He didn't and it didn't. Could be a long season in the Waikato this year.