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Perenara has his faults, and constantly chirping the refs didn’t reflect well, but his decision-making and willingness to work like a huntaway dog on a high country station was so important for the Canes. And now he’s gone.
Robert van Royen: TJ Perenara’s somewhat erratic passing won’t be missed, but the ‘Canes will dearly miss the yappy Perenara’s energy and leadership, and his ability to push out to first five-eighth in the second half, as he did so often last season.
Marc Hinton: Perenara without a doubt. Barrett is a more influential player, but the Blues cover pretty well for his absence (Otere Black, Stephen Perofeta and Harry Plummer) and it’s not like they don’t have firepower elsewhere in their backline.
Himeno will then go into a two-week isolation period but will be ready to get stuck into full training with the Highlanders on February 22. Securing a visa for Himeno is a boost for the Highlanders as there were fears that Covid-19 could scupper his arrival. Clark said the franchise used a third-party organisation to gain Himeno s visa, and their track record with other overseas players had helped that process. “With our Pacific Island players pretty much every year we re getting critical worker visas for them and the same organisation did it for Himeno, Clark said. “From our perspective obviously we saw him as a pretty vital part of the makeup for the year and obviously the fact that he is something a little out of the box helped him.