Highlanders outmuscled and outmanoeuvred
EVERYTHING that could have gone wrong did go wrong for the Highlanders in Christchurch on Saturday night.
The side plays a quick, lively game in which it moves the ball with pace and attempts to find defensive mismatches.
So the last thing it needed was a game played on a heavy track, in pouring rain against a Crusaders side which was loaded with All Blacks and had plenty to play for.
The Crusaders exploded out of the blocks on Saturday night and the Highlanders were never in the contest.
The visiting team was outmuscled in the forwards and had no territory to speak of in the first half.
For just the second time in their history the Highlanders failed to score a point in the game. The side never had a shot at goal and its visits to the attacking zone were few and far between.
Highlanders halfback Aaron Smith said the side never fired a shot in the first half.
‘‘I just think the mindset in the first half was a little bit wrong. If we played like we did in the second half things might have been different,’’ Smith said.
‘‘But full credit to the Crusaders. They had a plan and it worked. Once they got in our 22m and a big pack like that, which is pretty hard to stop, they just burrowed away, and burrowed away, until they got over the line. They just adapted way better then we did. We just piggybacked them into our 22m.
‘‘In the second half we played and then kicked and gave ourselves momentum. In that first half we just kicked it down there and they had a plan to kick it back to us and wait for us to make mistakes, and we played into their hands. Down 17 points, we just could not come back from that.’’
Smith said discipline did not help the Highlanders.
The cold and wind was ‘‘interesting’’ but it was the same for both teams, he said.
‘‘We had chances in the second half and we didn’t want to die wondering. But we just did not do it in the first half and were chasing our tails.’’
The Highlanders were behind the eight ball straight from the kickoff and losing Liam Squire
to a rough yellow card call after four minutes did not help.
The Crusaders had a monopoly on ball and territory in the first half and the Highlanders could get nothing going on attack.
Both the tries for the Crusaders came from forwards driving at the line as the game became all about pick and go in the miserable conditions.
Prop Joe Moody scored the first after 33 minutes and that was followed just over five minutes later with a try to hooker Codie Taylor.
The second half featured no points as the Highlanders had a go but the conditions did not suit their game. Richard Buckman tried hard for the team, as did fellow winger Waisake Naholo, but it was not a night for the backs.
Up front, Luke Whitelock gave his all and lock Jackson Hemopo got through plenty of work but the Highlanders front eight was a distant second to its opponent.