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‘They played for each other’: Jamie Joseph puts trust in his team ahead of Force clash

Jamie Joseph

Close, but no cigar. Once again the Highlanders have fallen short in a close Super Rugby Pacific encounter, this time at the hands of the ACT Brumbies in Canberra.

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The Highlanders fought back after halftime, having been behind, with in-form speedster Caleb Tangitau continuing his scintillating form by scoring another double on Friday night.

It’s the same story for Jamie Joseph’s men, as the loss on Friday night against the Brumbies marked their fourth close defeat of the season. All of their 2025 losing margins has been seven points or below.

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Despite the defeat, Joseph was pleased with the way his team bounced back from a slow start to wrestle the momentum back in favour of the Dunedin-based side.

“I think our players play really good rugby, I’m not sure of the stats, but I think we just made too many errors, really a lot of unforced errors that actually put a lot of pressure on the team,” Joseph said to media post-match in Canberra.

“What I’m proud about is the way that we defended and the way that we got ourselves back into the game, it was 15-5  at halftime, and then we worked our way back into the match, and then put ourselves in the winning position.

“When I look at the game, and in terms of summarising it all, we played well together. We tackled together, we defended together and they played well for each other.”

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Joseph said it’s tough to pinpoint where the game got away from them, but he says the momentum switch at set piece time was a factor.

“Then these momentum changes could have been a penalty for us at the scrum, but it was a penalty against us. Next thing we know, but in terms of coaching, pretty proud of my guys, we’ve got a young side.”

Highlanders captain Timoci Tavatavanawai was quick to mention their execution errors, saying that they will need to improve these for next weekend’s matchup against the Force in Perth.

Fixture
Super Rugby Pacific
Force
29 - 20
Full-time
Highlanders
All Stats and Data

“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.

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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.”

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Comments

3 Comments
J
JW 26 days ago

“I think our players play really good rugby, I’m not sure of the stats, but I think we just made too many errors, really a lot of unforced errors that actually put a lot of pressure on the team,”

Yes a double edged sword, as that is also what makes them so dangerous to the most organized defences.


If they can find the right balance and execute to where theyre not just turning and offloading the ball straight into the oppositions arms, and dealing better with the disadvantage the scrum is, they could push for playing for a spot in the final this year. It really exciting that the Landers may even push past that in the years to come too.

G
GM 26 days ago

Wonderfully committed performance by the Highlanders, undone by scrum penalties. Last week they were justified, but this week a couple of those penalties should have gone the Landers’ way - once the Brumbies props saw which way the ref was going they started hinging and pulling the scrum down, but the ref just kept seeing the same picture.

J
JW 25 days ago

I don’t know about that, but I aint no prop. Certainly the picture looked like they couldn’t even line up straight and got pinged twice for wheeling as a result, or Bartlett having his feet in a terrible position.


Those two on the other side were pretty experienced as wisey props though!

A
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