It was embarrassing. Because of a vacation booked months in advance, I was flying across the Tasman when the Highlanders met the Crusaders in the second of the southern showdowns; a rugby derby full of promise in the way of big hits, hard runs, plenty of scuffles, and a close scoreboard.
Or at least it was supposed to be. I was able to catch an hour highlights reel on Foxtel Saturday morning and discover how the game truly went down.
The most recent half of this season has seen a Crusaders team that comes out hard on attack from the first blow of the whistle. No poking and prodding to see what the other team is bringing to the game, just pure attack and energy, and from what I could see on the highlights replay, they brought that same attack against the Highlanders.
Their constant intensity and speed forced early errors from the boys in blue and gold, putting them onto the back foot and never letting them off it.
With the Highlanders barely ahead on the scoreboard, James Haskell, back after his suspension, managed to snag a yellow card just as a Whitelock came back on the field from his own yellow 10 minutes earlier. That was an easy 3 points for Dan the man Carter who brought the score to an even 13-13.
Not the best way to contribute to your team in your first game back Haskell and in all honesty, not too sure I've missed seeing you on the field anyway. In fact, I haven't.
Tim Boys has been perfectly capable in the 7 jersey and his mullet brought some true southern feel to the team.
Back to the footy, Carter's brilliance is what opened the game up for the Crusaders, the little dab to the ball with his foot which Zac Guildford scoops up for his second try. From then on the Crusaders make the Highlanders' defence look like they are just running some unopposed phase play for training.
Now, in the Highlanders' defence, two tries of the Crusaders should never have made it on the scoreboard due to a forward pass and a knock on, but even with those points taken off the total, it would still have been a shocking margin by which to get beat.
One can hypothesize that the momentum of the game might have changed if those infringements had been noticed and called, resulting in some more tries for the Highlanders and fewer for the Crusaders, but that is just guessing and not the actuality, which was a shocking defeat.
Last week, I thought that if the Highlanders had been playing anyone other than the Blues they would have lost that game, this week, I am sure if they had met the Blues again it would have been a loss (especially after how well the Blues played on Saturday, which was great to see) .
I don't know what happened, but our boys need to get their heads back into in playing good rugby and finish this season strong.
Maybe this hiatus for the Internationals is exactly what they need to regroup, refresh, and come out strong again.