It's a week Aaron Smith has known was coming for quite some time but one that is still hard to process.
The All Blacks halfback is set to play his final home game in Dunedin this Friday but the occasion has been heightened further with what is it stake for his beloved Highlanders.
Following their last-second win over the Rebels last week, the southerners are locked in a tight race to finish inside Super Rugby Pacific’s top eight with just two rounds to go.
It starts this weekend against the Reds with thousands expected to turn out to farewell one of their best.
Unfortunately for Smith, one of those who won’t be in attendance is his dad following his death last month.
“Yeah, it’s sad,” Smith said.
“It’s definitely a game dad had planned to come to so yeah, that sucks.”
Smith said his father was the man who challenged him to become one of the game’s greats and go from a kid from Manawatū to an All Blacks centurion and the Highlanders’ most capped player.
He and his dad would talk before every game.
“Every time I play rugby now, [there’s] a definite thought of my dad and the conversations we'd have,” he said.
“I'd always ring him on the way to the game on the car ride in and he'd give me the goofy laugh and the awkward jokes – just what my dad would do.
“He would always tell me, ’you've got this son’ so the last month has been really interesting playing rugby without that stuff.
“I'll be thinking of my dad on Friday night for sure and just trying to do him proud and he's here and he's with me always and he used to love coming to watch games here.”
Smith can appreciate the bigger picture as well with the Highlanders sitting ninth three points behind the Force and only four points back of the seventh-placed Reds.
With their final regular game of the season being in Auckland against the Blues, the Highlanders’ do-or-die mentality has come early.
“We've got a lot to play for this week - our season's on the line,” Smith said.
“As a competitor and as an athlete that's what you want, to just be in big games and they don't get much bigger than this weekend.”
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