Rugby: Southern hopes high

Jamie Mackintosh. Photo / Getty Images

Jamie Mackintosh paints the picture of a caged dog just itching to get out and bite someone.

How big this dog is and how much damage it can inflict is not clear. In the past six seasons, as the Highlanders have finished last of the five New Zealand franchises, it's been more like a chihuahua than a pitbull.

There is cagey optimism a more fearsome canine will represent the Highlanders next season.

There's a freshness around the organisation and it's not just because of the appointment of former Otago and All Blacks flanker Jamie Joseph as head coach.

Joseph has installed a new management team, new assistant coaches and brought in 15 new players into an expanded squad of 32. The headquarters have even been moved to a new base at the back of the University Oval and the Highlanders are also finally separate from Otago Rugby.

The only shame is the new stadium won't be ready in time for next season's Super 15, meaning the Highlanders will be back at a tired, old Carisbrook one last time.

Joseph's appointment has been greeted with enthusiasm in the south. Even though he is technically an outsider, many see it as a case of "our boy who's come home".

The 40-year-old spent nearly eight years in Dunedin. He played 68 games for the blue-and-golds in the relative halcyon days of 1989 to 1995 when Otago still won things (although, painfully for southerners, not the Ranfurly Shield).

He was an uncompromising player and his coaching style seems no different. He has also impressed locals by being visible and honest. He's not promising the world and nor can he. Anything other than honesty would be viewed dimly by a jilted rugby public.

But for all that, Dunedin is hardly buzzing with rugby talk. Locals are likely to afford Joseph more patience than others but there is still a healthy core of sceptics who question whether even he can turn things around. Just below the surface lurks fear of defeat - again.

"I get a feeling from the people I talk to, and they range from the dairy owner and taxi driver to corporate executive, that they aren't putting pressure on me," he says. "I get the feeling they don't have high expectations, more hope.

"But some people don't care and that's sad. Some people in the deep south say they've been losing for too long so they are disengaged from the team. That's what I think is the priority, to re-engage those people. We need to start caring about the team again. People tend to care when they see effort and teamliness."

That's the biggest message he will preach when his new squad start pre-season training on December 13. He wants a new culture and beginning, something locals can talk about with pride rather than embarrassment.

This month, they will head to Stewart Island with a small group of management and senior players to fish and talk about what it means to be a Highlander. It will be as much about listening as it is talking.

Mackintosh might have a fair bit to say. The new captain knows better than most what it has been like to have been a Highlander. He has been involved with the outfit since 2005 and made his debut in 2007 when they finished ninth - the best finish he's experienced in four seasons.

"It's been interesting," he reflects carefully. "I've had some great times and some hard times. The thing about what I've been through is we've always been a proud team, being southern men. It's hard as a player because no one goes out to try to lose. No one goes out to play poorly.

"I look back on so many games we've lost and there are so many we've lost by not much that all compound to being unsuccessful. There are no easy answers or easy fixes. It's the hardest rugby competition in the world. Even the teams with world-class players throughout their squad struggle.

"But if we can get some heart back into the Highlanders and play to our potential, that's all you can ask for. People will respect that.

"It's what we've done with Southland in the last few years. People there support us."

Joseph, however, is careful to create an element of distance between Southland and the Highlanders. It's not that he disregards what they have achieved south of the Catlins but he wants their own identity.

"Southland are a very successful team in the way they buy into the way they play," he says. "Everything they do, they do as a team. But this is a different team.

"While we want some of those characteristics, if not most of them, we want to establish that under a Highlander brand as opposed to a Southland one. There are 10 players coming from the North Island who don't go hunting and fishing, and don't enjoy those things because they've never done it before. One of Jamie's responsibilities [as captain] will be making those guys feel comfortable becoming Highlanders."

Lima Sopoaga is one of the newcomers. He represents a lot of what the Highlanders are about these days. Like many who ventured south, the 20-year hopes for a chance. The Highlanders can't attract the best so they have to do the best with what they have.

Sopoaga is clearly a player of great potential but, at 20 and with only a handful of ITM Cup games to his name, is still largely unproven. "With the new guys, we are going to bring an excitement to the team, an energy," he says enthusiastically. "We are all raring to go and hopefully that will lift the senior boys who have been around the block for a while. Hopefully we can come in and use that positive energy. I think we will be right for the season.

"No one is expecting the Highlanders to come out and do anything but if you look at this year's competition, the Reds, they were cellar-dwellers and almost made the top four. Anything can happen within a year. You never know."

They haven't been helped by changes to the format. With more games against the four other New Zealand sides - the Highlanders have historically struggled against the Blues, Chiefs, Hurricanes and Crusaders - they will be tested.

But they will have a decent first XV. Joseph has recruited smartly with the likes of Colin Slade, Jarrad Hoeata and Nick Crosswell to go with seasoned campaigners in Mackintosh, Jimmy Cowan, Tom Donnelly, Jason Rutledge, Nasi Manu, Ben Smith and Josh Bekhuis.

It's imperative, however, this group play as much as possible because depth, particularly in the loose forwards and midfield, is slim.

The signing of Slade is the biggest coup. The Highlanders have wanted for a quality first five since Nick Evans left in 2007 and tried three players in that position last season.

Joseph sees similarities between the present time and when he was playing in Dunedin. As many as 26 players come from outside the province, including a record 13 from Southland.

"In my day, the majority came from out of the region, just like this," he says. "Guys came down to Dunedin to have a crack and we played accordingly. That's the same now.

"I'm a different coach to the last ones. The management team I have surrounded myself with are different guys. I think the players will find it really exhilarating, not because of what they have had but because of what they will get.

"We have familiarity with the region. We know what it's like down here, having lived here and played here myself for eight years."

Joseph was known as something of a mongrel during his playing days. He and Mackintosh will hope that's the sort of dog that emerges from the cage this time around.