Frustration and excitement are contrasting terms but they regularly spill out of the mouth of Highlanders lock Tom Donnelly as he eyes up his side's fourth round clash with the Hurricanes in Dunedin on Friday night.

The frustration is understandable after suffering three narrow losses to start their season. But in the same breath Donnelly reckons frustration can be a weapon the Highlanders can use against the increasingly potent Hurricanes.

As for the excitement, well, despite their rocky start there's no lack of it in the blue and gold camp and the energy levels have gone up this week with their captain Craig Newby making his long-awaited comeback from injury.

Donnelly, a Junior All Black in his fifth year of Super rugby and with a deserved Mr Consistency tag to his name, doesn't like to dwell on the frustrations too much. Like his team he's staying positive.

"Yeah frustrated probably sums it up," he tells RugbyHeaven after after the final training run in a bit of Dunedin drizzle. "We know we could have had three wins. But it's now a matter of us capitalising on our home games, stop making those basic errors and hopefully a bit of fortune goes out way.

"But we're still excited about playing, we're back at home and hopefully we can get another good crowd in to help us along."

They will need every bit of help they can get against a Canes side that showed their true potential in ripping apart the Chiefs last week.

"They look like they are hitting one of those patches where everything they touch turns to gold," worries Donnelly. "It's up to us to D-up and try and manage that through the first 30 minutes or so and frustrate them a bit. If we can utilise that a bit of that then we can play our game."

The odds might be stacked against the Highlanders but history is on their side. Plenty of good Hurricanes teams have travelled south and come up short. The Canes have only had two wins at Carisbrook and those were 10 years apart in 1996 and 2006.

The Newby factor will be crucial to the young Highlanders team. He has developed into a spiritual leader since shifting permanently down south from North Harbour and with so many big names having departed Dunedin that standing should only increase.

Not surprisingly, Donnelly speaks highly of his skipper who has an uncompromising approach to his back row play and a follow-me leadership style.

"He's awesome and he brings a bit more experience to our tam which we are lacking. Just his excitement for the game at the moment ... he hasn't played in almost eight months. So he's bringing everyone up with him this week which is good."

And while front row All Blacks Clarke Dermody, Carl Hayman and Anton Oliver have headed off to Europe and lock James Ryan is still sidelined with his shoulder problem, Donnelly has encouraging words for the men charged with filling some big boots.

"Our young locks (Isaac Ross and Hayden Triggs) have been playing really well and it was really unfortunate for Triggsy last week with his eye injury because playing week-in and week-out was really suiting him. It's good for our team if we can just keep going with this youth and excitement.

"And I think Clint Newland is Carl Hayman's twin - they wear the same size boot and they are almost the same person," he chuckles.

That's high praise indeed for the transplanted Hawke's Bay prop. Mind you, in Donnelly's eyes, this is a huge challenge for the Highlanders' tight five. The Hurricanes may be full of dash out wide but he reckons their real strength lies in the core of their pack.

"They have an All Blacks front row and they have two tall locks who are very good in the air so I think the set pieces are going to be a big ask for us this week."

Clearly there is no defeatist attitude in the Highlanders squad. In reality they are in serious rebuilding mode at the moment and making a pretty good fist of things. And they aren't out of the picture either despite three losses.

Importantly they have been picking up bonus points along the way. But with a bye looming next week they know they need to strike now to make their time off a bit more comfortable.

"Yeah, it would be a great help for us if we tuck one game away amongst these close ones. It will help the confidence," said Donnelly.

"If you look at other teams ... one year the Crusaders their first three and went on to win the competition. The Chiefs last year lost their first three and were pushing for a semifinal spot at the end of things.

"It's these sort of middle games in the competition that we have to start getting some wins on the board. Then, come the end of things, we might be pushing for a semifinal spot as well."

They are words borne out of frustration but still spoken with real excitement.

HURRICANES: 15 Shannon Paku, 14 Ma'a Nonu, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Tamati Ellison, 11 Hosea Gear, 10 Jimmy Gopperth, 9 Piri Weepu, 8 Rodney So'oialo (c), 7 Scott Waldrom, 6 Jerry Collins, 5 Jason Eaton, 4 Craig Clarke, 3 Tim Fairbrother, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 John Schwalger. Reserves: 16 Hikawera Elliot, 17 Jacob Ellison, 18 Jeremy Thrush, 19 Thomas Waldrom, 20 Alby Mathewson, 21 Willie Ripia, 22 Tane Tu'ipulotu.

HIGHLANDERS: 15 James Wilson, 14 Paul Williams, 13 Niva Ta'auso, 12 Johnny Leota, 11 Fetu'u Vainikolo, 10 Daniel Bowden, 9 Jimmy Cowan; 8 Steven Setephano, 7 Alando Soakai, 6 Craig Newby (c), 5 Tom Donnelly, 4 Isaac Ross, 3 Clint Newland, 2 Jason Macdonald (c), 1 Jamie Mackintosh. Reserves: 16 David Hall, 17 Keith Cameron, 18 Hoani MacDonald, 19 Adam Thomson, 20 Toby Morland, 21 Mike Delany, 22 Brett Mather.

Referee: Bryce Lawrence (NZ - controlling his 100th first class game)