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‘We gave it our best’: Highlanders captain reflects on tough loss

(Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

The Highlanders “gave it our best” on Friday night against the Blues, but fell painfully short of a result that they so desperately needed.

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Heading into the final round of the regular season, the men from the deep south occupied eighth spot on the Super Rugby Pacific ladder.

If nothing changes, that’d be enough – they’d live to fight another day in the playoffs. But the 16-9 defeat to the Blues takes things out of their control.

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“We gave it our best, we gave a lot of heart, we couldn’t quite nail it but we put ourselves in a good position,” captain Billy Harmon said post-game on Sky Sport.

“We just couldn’t quite finish it off.”

The Highlanders need a series of results to fall their way in round 15 – but the good news is that one already has.

At the time of writing, the Brumbies have knocked the Melbourne Rebels out of playoff contention with a 33-17 win at Canberra’s GIO Stadium on Friday.

If the Queensland Reds beat the Fijian Drua and the Chiefs defeat the Western Force in Perth, then the Highlanders will be playoff bound.

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But if not, their season draws to a close.

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Aaron Smith’s Highlanders career will come to an end as well.

If this is the end for the Highlanders in 2023, then there’s plenty of positives that they can take out of the season moving forward.

“I think we’ve come a long way, we’ve built up heaps, and I think we’re in a good spot for the next couple of years,” Harmon added.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys coming through that are really starting to find some form so it’s awesome to see.”

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The Highlanders opened the scoring at Eden Park with an early penalty goal to midfielder Sam Gilbert. The goalkicking ace another added another successful attempt to the score shortly after.

But the Blues dominated possession, and eventually made the Highlanders pay.

Lock Patrick Tuipulotu crossed for the first try of the match in the 29th minute – and this turned out to the only try of the contest as well.

The Blues took a 16-6 lead into the break, and another Sam Gilbert penalty was the only change to the score in the second term.

Having lost by seven points, the Highlanders secured a losing bonus point. But the playoffs is the goal, and again, that’s now out of their control.

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Bull Shark 4 hours ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

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