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We summarise the properties of the absorbing haloes around two high-redshift radio galaxies studied with the VLT-UVES echelle spectrograph. The absorbers in 0943−242 (z=2.92) exhibit little further structure compared with previous data—the main absorber still has N(HI)≃1019 cm−2—reinforcing the picture in which the absorbing gas occupies a smooth shell beyond the emission line halo. In 0200+015 (z=2.23) the main absorber now splits into two spatially-resolved systems with N(HI)≃4×1014 cm−2, one of which has strong CIV absorption, implying a metallicity of Z≃10 Z◎. We explain the differences between the two sources with an evolutionary scenario, invoking interaction with the expanding radio source and metal enrichment via a starburst superwind. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]