{"id":419126,"date":"2026-05-09T06:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T06:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/419126\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T06:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T06:36:09","slug":"highlanders-hold-comfortable-lead-over-waratahs-at-halftime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/419126\/","title":{"rendered":"Highlanders hold comfortable lead over Waratahs at halftime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Follow all the Super Rugby Pacific action from Dunedin&#8217;s Forsyth Barr Stadium. as the Highlanders and NSW Waratahs battle for a spot in the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>The two rivals are level on 20 points in seventh and eighth, outside the cut for the post-season, so this encounter may hold the key for one team&#8217;s title hopes.<\/p>\n<p>Flying winger Caleb Tangitau returns from injury for the southerners.<\/p>\n<p>Kickoff is at 4.35pm.<\/p>\n<p>Highlanders: 1. Ethan de Groot (co-c), 2. Jack Taylor, 3. Angus Ta&#8217;avao, 4. Tomas Lavanini, 5. Mitch Dunshea, 6. Te Kamaka Howden, 7. Lucas Casey, 8. Nikora Broughton, 9. Adam Lennox, 10. Cameron Millar, 11. Jonah Lowe, 12. Timoci Tavatavanawai (co-c), 13. Jona Nareki, 14. Caleb Tangitau, 15. Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens.<\/p>\n<p>Bench: Soane Vikena, Daniel Lienert-Brown, Saula Ma&#8217;u, Oliver Haig, Sean Withy, Folau Fakatava, Taine Robinson, Xavier Tito-Harris.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JOXQG1_highlanders_v_waratahs_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"656\" alt=\"Highlanders host NSW Waratahs at Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nHighlanders host NSW Waratahs at Dunedin&#8217;s Forsyth Barr Stadium.<br \/>\nPhoto: RNZ\/Photosport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow all the Super Rugby Pacific action from Dunedin&#8217;s Forsyth Barr Stadium. as the Highlanders and NSW Waratahs&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,213],"class_list":["post-419126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}