Shut, however no cigar. As soon as once more the Highlanders have fallen brief in an in depth Super Rugby Pacific encounter, this time by the hands of the ACT Brumbies in Canberra.
The Highlanders fought again after halftime, having been behind, with in-form speedster Caleb Tangitau persevering with his scintillating kind by scoring one other double on Friday evening.
It’s the identical story for Jamie Joseph’s males, because the loss on Friday evening in opposition to the Brumbies marked their fourth shut defeat of the season. All of their 2025 dropping margins has been seven factors or beneath.
Regardless of the defeat, Joseph was happy with the way in which his group bounced again from a sluggish begin to wrestle the momentum again in favour of the Dunedin-based facet.
“I believe our gamers play actually good rugby, I’m undecided of the stats, however I believe we simply made too many errors, actually lots of unforced errors that truly put lots of strain on the group,” Joseph stated to media post-match in Canberra.
“What I’m proud about is the way in which that we defended and the way in which that we acquired ourselves again into the sport, it was 15-5 at halftime, after which we labored our approach again into the match, after which put ourselves within the profitable place.
“After I take a look at the sport, and by way of summarising all of it, we performed properly collectively. We tackled collectively, we defended collectively and they performed properly for one another.”
Joseph stated it’s powerful to pinpoint the place the sport acquired away from them, however he says the momentum change at set piece time was an element.
“Then these momentum modifications may have been a penalty for us on the scrum, however it was a penalty in opposition to us. Subsequent factor we all know, however by way of teaching, fairly happy with my guys, we’ve acquired a younger facet.”
Highlanders captain Timoci Tavatavanawai was fast to say their execution errors, saying that they might want to enhance these for subsequent weekend’s matchup in opposition to the Force in Perth.
“We work together as a team and in the end we didn’t get didn’t get the results today, but just like I said earlier, just those little skills execution there, we need to sharpen up as individuals,” Tavatavanawai said post-match.
Tangitau admitted his teammates were disappointed with the result, especially after losing the last couple of games.
“Yeah, really disappointed, we had a tough loss last week, so we wanted to bounce back this week,” Tangitau told Stan Sports broadcast on Friday evening.
“But on to the next we go.”
Tangitau has been electric for the Highlanders in 2025, saying that he’s enjoying the game time at the Highlanders.
“Yeah I love it, I love being out here with my Highlanders boys, especially the game time, growing my confidence each game.
“I’m enjoying it so far here.”
