'You could really feel his Fijian power': Ardie Savea praises Highlanders captain

It was unfortunately more of the same for Moana Pasifika in their first home game of the season on Friday evening in Albany.

Moana Pasifika fought back in the second half after a disappointing first half in front of their biggest-ever crowd for a home game.

Highlanders co-captain Timoci Tavatavanawai has been grabbing all of the headlines throughout the first three rounds of the competition, something that Moana Pasifika captain and All Blacks loose forward Ardie Savea understands, after battling with Tavatavanawai for 80 minutes.

“Yeah, he’s pretty scary aye, there were a few times he looked at me and ran it straight,” Savea told media post-match.

“You really felt his Fijian power, and it’s awesome to see Jim (Tavatavanawai), doing his thing.

“It’s a great sight to see. It’s always awesome playing against the best and going up against the best.”

Savea said after the game that despite his team’s positive signs, the results speak for themselves. They must go again next weekend against the Hurricanes to attempt to win their first game of the season.

“As much as there were great moments for our team. We still lost and for this team, we want to win games, and we’ve got to find ways to do that,” Savea said to media after the match.

“We didn’t help ourselves and we have to be better. There were moments there that the boys fronted up, and nailed the next task. We were down 21 and we got back within the game, those are the moments where the boys showed ticker but we’ve just got to stop putting ourselves in those positions.

“Whether that’s the mental game, whether that’s nailing our next moment, whether that’s we switch off. We’ve got to find answers quickly.”

Culture round was a special week for Moana Pasifika, donning their 2004-inspired jerseys, and paying tribute to the Pacific Islanders team that played against the All Blacks in 2004.

Moana Pasifika head coach Tana Umaga explains that every week is culture week for his side.

“We do culture every day here, so just because we have a round that’s called culture round doesn’t mean anything changes for us, like we live our culture every day in terms of what we do here and as I’ve said before, we’re unapologetic around us, being Pacific.

“Then how we show our Pacific flavour in terms of how we go about our work here. It’s great that people acknowledge culture now, it’s been a long time.

“Watching our culture come to the ground, support us on the field, it’s great for us, but seeing our people come to the ground, and also seeing people from the local community supporting us now that’s awesome, and they’re wearing Moana Pasfika colours, so they’re getting into our culture.