Rugby: Highlanders cast of no-names centre stage

Liam Coltman of the Highlanders on the charge during the Super Rugby Qualifying Final match. Photo / Getty Images

Solid forward base and teamwork rather than individual standout stars secret to team’s success.

If they were a film cast, they would be more like Entourage than a George Clooney-Brad Pitt feature.

Names like Reddish, Ainley and Edmonds are not exactly top box office stars. Hardly guys who can light up the screen.

But the way they are performing they are in line for a Oscar.

For what makes a good movie is also what makes a good team.

Hard work by everyone, following a clever script and doing their job as well as they can.

The Highlanders front five are doing everything right.

And with five All Blacks, or soon to be All Blacks, out back that is all they have to do.

The forwards do not have to be the stars.

They just have to get the ball for the backs and the fancy men with the quick feet will score the tries.

That is the basic role of forwards and the Highlanders forwards are doing it beautifully.

Of the 61 tries scored by the Highlanders - which is a record for a season by some margin - just 14 of them have been scored by the forwards - 23 per cent.

The tight five have collectively scored just four tries between them all season.

The engine room though do not care who scores the tries.

They just want to get the ball, give it to the backs and let them do the magic. They are doing that almost to perfection.

The side are the best side in the competition in scrums won. They win on average nearly nine scrums a game.

In contrast, the Waratahs win just six scrums a game.

The Highlanders are the fourth best in the competition at grabbing lineout steals.

On Saturday night in Sydney they stole five lineouts off the Waratahs and that more than anything - including the dazzling work by the backs - won the game for the side.

On average the Highlanders collect just under two lineout steals per game.

When they throw the ball in they have a success rate of nearly 89 per cent, which is the third best in the competition.

The Highlanders just hit rucks, stand strong in the scrum, and win lineouts.

It is pretty simple.

So who are these men up front who do the business for the Highlanders?

The common theme are of players who have never really been given a chance. Guys who have been around the scene but have always missed out to someone else.

Always been second choice.

There is a theory floating around Hollywood about Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.

It goes along the lines that there are 10,000 actors almost as good as Pitt and Cruise but for whatever reason those 10,000 are getting paid $10 an hour to wait tables while the likes of Pitt, Cruise and Clooney get paid millions.

Members of the Highlanders engine room are the same.

The props and locks of the Highlanders tight five have always been the waiters. Always missed out to some bigger star. Perceived to be not quite as good.

But now these men are getting their chance to star in a movie.

And it is quickly becoming a blockbuster.