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Highlanders remain optimistic despite worst start to season since 2013
The Highlanders remain optimistic about their chances of securing their first Super Rugby Pacific win despite falling to their worst start to a season in nine years.
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Not since the dismal 2013 Super Rugby campaign, in which they finished ahead of only the Southern Kings with three wins from 16 matches, have the Highlanders endured a winless start three matches into a new season.
That’s exactly what has transpired over the last few weeks, though, as successive defeats at the hands of the Chiefs, Crusaders and Hurricanes leaves the Highlanders with only one competition point to their name.
Only the Melbourne Rebels and Moana Pasifika rank lower on the table than the Dunedin-based franchise heading into their round four clash against the Blues in Albany on Friday.
That, however, hasn’t stopped assistant coach Clarke Dermody from staying upbeat about his side’s chances against one of the competition’s title frontrunners at North Harbour Stadium.
Speaking to media on Monday, Dermody said the Highlanders are capable of walking away from this weekend’s match with their first victory of the year provided they produce a drastically improved effort after last week’s dire 21-14 loss to the Hurricanes.
“I think it’s just finishing those opportunities,” Dermody said when asked what the Highlanders need to do to pick themselves up and dust themselves off after their season-opening of defeats.
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“If you actually watch the game back, we created so much, but last pass or, like I say, just trying a bit hard in that last two metres.
“There’s a couple of maul tries we could have executed, pushover scrum, a kick to the corner – there’s a lot of things that if we tidy up, it’s a different game.
“We’re not far away. It’s just going to be tough to turn it around against the Blues because they’re a quality outfit.
“[They] obviously beat us in the [Super Rugby Trans-Tasman] final last year, but we know how they’re playing, so pretty confident if we go up and if get our game right, we can get a win.”
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Dermody’s comments come after “hugely frustrated” head coach Tony Brown said in the immediate aftermath of the Hurricanes loss that the Highlanders had lost their “mojo” and are staring down the barrel of a “pretty tough season” if they can’t find it soon.
Brown’s frustrations stem from the fact that his side continually blew try-scoring opportunities despite dominating the ball with 60 percent of the possession.
The Highlanders boss made particular note of the fact that the southerners coughed up 22 turnovers, which he said “is just not good enough at this level”, a sentiment that Dermody agreed with on Monday.
“It was pretty clear straight away while we lost to the Hurricanes,” Dermody said of the franchise’s high turnover rate.
“We obviously turned the ball over 48 percent of the time. That’s a stat that we tracked through the game, it’s a live stat, so I guess it’s just being able to learn from that and, if we’re heading that way again, how do we change it during a game?
“It’s a bit late to try and change it now. It was a game we feel like if we executed, we win, but unfortunately we didn’t, so we haven’t.”
Dermody added that a similarly error-filled performance against the Blues, whose forward pack he highlighted as a key strength of theirs, would be costly for the Highlanders.
“They’re a team that you don’t want inside your 22. They’re pretty clinical when they get opportunities in that last zone on the field, so turnovers will kill anything, and we had quite a few on the weekend.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Dagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
4 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
37 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to comments