Rugby: Moore finds positives in 5-try effort

Highlanders coach Glenn Moore took something positive from his side's loss to the Bulls yesterday but says poor one-on-one tackling cost his side dearly.

Moore said if his team played a whole game as it did for three-quarters of one yesterday, then it should make an impact in the competition.

The Highlanders started stone cold against the Bulls in Pretoria, slumping to 21-0 after just 11 minutes and faced a thumping of huge proportions.

But they bounced back, finally finding some ball and hanging on to it, to score five tries, though they never got close to the home team as the South Africans posted a 50-35 win.

Moore said the shocking start was simply a case of the Highlanders having a poor few minutes.

"For the first two or three minutes we handled the ball all right but then they got away on us.

The next 12 or so minutes was very costly," he told the Otago Daily Times from Pretoria.

"It was simply a case of one-on-one tackles being missed. When the high balls were going up we were not taking them and that helped them get a roll on.

"But our guys showed huge ticker to come back and score those five tries. Our attack went quite well. We looked at some channels to attack through and open them up, and that seemed to work."

Moore said to score five tries after such a poor start was a credit to the spirit in the team.

"We scored some really good tries and, in fact, bombed about three more.

"So you've got to take some positives out of that. The first 15 minutes was really disappointing but we showed for the rest of it that we were up to the task.

"If we can keep this attack going then we can show we can really be a force in this competition.

"By scoring those tries, it showed we are not here to make up the numbers."

Though the loss left the side stuck in 11th place, the Highlanders now return home after a three-week sojourn to South Africa with some degree of confidence.

The side's next two games at Carisbrook, against the Sharks and the Lions, are both must-wins.

Three of the Highlanders' four losses so far are against sides which look like being title contenders - the Bulls, Crusaders and Stormers - while it is now becoming clear how costly the defeat to the Blues was in the second week of the competition.

Moore said the tour had been good for spirits and felt the backs had played particularly well yesterday.

"We just need to get home and get back into our work and look forward to playing in front of our home crowd. If we can produce for a full game what we did for three-quarters of today, then we'll be all right."

Fullback Israel Dagg had an outstanding game, Moore said, easily his best performance of the season.

His hat trick was the first scored by a Highlander since Ben Blair, also a fullback, did it against the Sharks in Durban in 2005.

Loose forward Adam Thomson and inside back Michael Hobbs will be available for the Sharks game at Carisbrook on Saturday after missing yesterday's game because they missed a curfew in Cape Town after the Stormers match.

No major injuries resulted from the game yesterday.

With the win, the Bulls remain at the top of the table and will be licking their lips with the slumping Hurricanes next up.

The Hurricanes never got going against the Stormers in Cape Town and suffered a second straight loss, 37-13.

The Sharks lost another close game, beaten 24-22 to the Brumbies in Canberra, while the Waratahs blitzed the Lions 73-12.

The Reds played the Force in Brisbane last night.