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Kia ora, good afternoon and welcome to Newshub's live coverage of the Hurricanes v Highlanders Super Rugby Pacific clash at Wellington's Sky Stadium.
The Wellingtonians can still finish atop the competition table, but they need to better whatever the Blues achieve against the Chiefs later tonight at Eden Park, so they need to aim for a winning bonus point against the southerners.
Safe to say, the Highlanders have probably exceeded mid-season expectations, when they languished near the foot of the ladder. They have secured their spot in the playoffs, but a local derby win would help their morale before the quarter-finals.
Join us at 4:30pm for kickoff.
TAB Odds: Hurricanes $1.04, Highlanders $9
Fate propels Numia, Proctor towards higher honours after Hurricanes success
With the Hurricanes one of three teams that could finish atop the Super Rugby Pacific standings, two of the keys to their success are young stars Xavier Numia and Billy Proctor, both of whom have entered the conversation for higher honours
Little did they know that an encounter 10 years ago would change their rugby fortunes forever.
A front-rower today, Numia was originally a midfielder at Wellington's St Patrick's College, that was until Proctor started showing up to training.
"We played U14s together," recalls Numia. "He came from Scots College and that was the same time I was eating too much KFC, and he pretty much pushed me to the front row."
"He was a bit skinner than what he is now, but he was still a big midfielder, so I don’t know, he might have to thank me later, because now he’s made a living out of it," insisted Proctor.
That was evident just last week, with a barnstorming try against the Chiefs
"That's probably where he got it from, when he was running around with that 12 jersey, got the old in-and-out going," said Proctor.
After playing together for Wellington, Hurricanes and All Blacks XV, there is now just one team missing from their collection - the All Blacks - but they're not listening to the outside noise about potential call-ups.
"Obviously, it’s every kids dream to wear the black jersey, but I’m just doing whatever I can do to perform for my brothers," said Numia.
"Just play the best footy I can and, at the moment, that’s for the Hurricanes and the goal is to win a championship for this team," said Proctor.
Even so, it seems only a matter of time, before they're sharing the stage at the highest level.
