Highlanders face a crisis at hooker

The Highlanders are facing a crisis in the front row following their 23-19 loss to the Hurricanes in Dunedin.

While the Highlanders are still searching for their first victory of the season the injuries are mounting which won’t help matters.

Captain Andrew Hore popped a rib cartilage in the first scrum of the match and then incredibly his replacement Brayden Mitchell broke a collarbone.

The double injury blow means that Highlanders discard Jason Rutledge is likely to be rushed back to Dunedin to join squad member Liam Coltman after he spent last week with the Hurricanes as hooker cover.

On the positive side Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph says that they are starting to find their feet.

“We wanted to apply that pressure and be real simple in our approach and I thought we did that most of the time,” Joseph told Fairfax NZ News.

“I don’t know how many times we broke them and they were very good at scrambling defence and getting back and stopping us in that last pass.”