Highlanders recruits for 2011 so far.

Colin Slade - Great Purchase,form AB's halves combo with Jimmy Cowan Aaron Smith - So that must cancel out Sean Romans & Scott Cowan Shaun Treeby - Can't get ahead of Smith & Nonu,good move for him Jarrad Hoeata - Journey man can't make the hurricanes Nick Crosswell - Journey man can't get ahead of Lowe,So'oialo,Vito

They need to go for under rated Dwayne Sweeney as centre alongside Treeby,that would be a smart buy for The Highlanders,I still say George Whitelock & one of Crusaders 4 AB locks go to Highlanders,Jack or Ross

Andy #7, could not agree with you more. Logan Savory is right, the glory days of the union were linked to the talent going through the University. Andy's proposal for involving the institutions has credence and using the model of the 'University City' has a lot of credence. KIWICAM I don't agree with you on the origin model. State of Origin is played over three games; the ITM cup is over what, 13, 14 rounds? Completely different competetions and models. The idea of rep rugby is that you represesent the province where you live/work. Slightly different now in the professional era but the premise is still the same.

Also agree on Mooney. Could not understand the decision for two reasons: a) as pointed out he was a failed S14 coach; b) how a Queenslander could relate to anyone south of the Waitaki, I have no idea.

Overall the demise of both Auckland and Otago rugby is sad for NZ rugby, however the Southland team have been fantastic and those shield games are a throw back to the 'good old days' of provincial footy. Loving it.

Suggest the Otago team watch the All Blacks they play as a team ie they get the ball to their backs who know what to do with it. Can't imagine Otago scoring a try like Israel Dagg did against the Boks, no wonder he has moved on, they would have rumbled it up in the forwards, Boring!!! IMHO there is too much play in the forwards , in the modern game and why on earth do backs insist on putting their heads in the rucks, they usually give away a penalty, they should get back into position in the backline. When forwards insist on hogging the ball which always slows down the play look at the result the opposition sets up the wall defence and it is very hard to penetrate it. Speed is the essence and capitalizing on turnovers by immediately sending the ball wide.

Otago needs to do the basics properly. Poor passing and handling indicates the pressure to win a game is gettting to the players. They had plenty of territory against Taranaki to turn pressure in to points.

Dr Zoidberg #6

A little success? A LITTLE SUCCESS???

We have gone to the semi-finals back to back, hold the Ranfurly shield and have been better than Otago for 5 seasons in a row! You are right we were poor ten years ago but that was because other teams (usually Otago) stole all of our developed players (Wilson, Miller, Mils, Marshall etc).

A drop to the second division might be a good thing, get some wins under the belt and some self-belief away from the pressure of first division, then return in a few years later better for the experience. It worked for Southland, doesn't mean it'll work for Otago but it's worth a try.

For you guys saying the uni/council/etc need to offer the players further incentives, look at the Highlanders, as individual players they're the biggest bunch of underperforming overpaid losers that ever walked the earth. You can't buy loyalty and you sure as hell can't buy passion, the two things Otago rugby is sorely lacking.

Besides, the council has already built them a stadium, let the ORFU start earning their keep. I'd rather see some money go into the grassroots club-based programmes than any more ratepayer dollars going into these 'high-performance' athletes.

I wrote to Richard Reid and told him the only way to save otago rugby is to get together with the council and the Uni and offer young players the chance to live for free in a council or uni house, free fees while studying and a great rugby career path. If all 3 got together and sorted this out then again we would attract good young players who would fill the shoes of past hero's. Mooney is a just another error in a sting of errors. Lata should have been given the job hands down. The way otago and the highlanders have treated player is crazy. They need to learn from the Crusaders I am sure there are no trade secretes.

I think that the NZRU will have to step in soon to help out. There is no way that a province as large as Otago should be allowed to have a team this rubbish. The problem is (as I think this article is trying to say), is that there is very little home-grown talent. To me, this means that the development level of the game needs work. Ok, we all like results in the NPC team, but if you don't have a talent pool to work from, then your future is going to suffer. If I was the NZRU, I would talk to some fringe AB players who are in other provinces, and try to get 4 or 5 of them to shift down. This would help generate interest (as well as hopefully results) - which will allow time to develop the younger talent, who can then be bought through to the NPC team when ready (instead of being rushed in at the moment and getting spanked).

I love my Otago team, and will continue to support them - but gee it's getting tough.

Otago Rugby has gone the way of Dunedin in general. No one is doing anything to allow Dunedin to retain it's status as a leader in New Zealand. I love Dunedin, btu Dunedin now has little going for it. We need to look at Southland and get a leader like Tim Shadbolt who has vision.

Well, that's 5 of the most gutless, pathetic, losses in the history of Otago rugby now. Absolutely disgraceful. From the opening whistle the players didn't listen to the ref or understand the rules and kicked out on the full, to the final whistle and not even being able to work out a penalty would have at least salvaged a point from that train smash.

Mooney is an idiot, and is still persisting with the Reds style of attritional rugby, forwards hitting it up all the time, and that got them nowhere. Look at how much better the Reds are playing now he's gone. And look at the 2nd half when the Otago boys finally decided to have a run and scored a try from their own 22 that the 90s sides would have been proud of.

Problem is that Latta will be tarred with the Mooney brush, and also we've lost another year's development and at least 2 of our star players. Pathetic. The ORFU are squarely to blame for this. They have driven away a lot of rugby knowledge through egotistical, selfserving power struggles. The NZRU maybe need to put the ORFU into statutory management too.