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Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph is calling on his squad to take more responsibility after a hefty loss to the Hurricanes.
The Highlanders were thumped 50-7 by the Hurricanes on Friday night and Joseph wanted to see a better response from his troops as they head away to play Moana Pasifika this week.
“They need to own it,’’ Joseph said.
“They need to get up and look at their own performances first, so [do] we as coaches.
“Everybody just needs to basically take some kind of responsibility from behalf of the team to get it right.
“There’s a lot of people that rely on us.’’
The Highlanders made far too many errors against the top-of-the-table Hurricanes, which they pounced on.
“We gave away a lot of mistakes . . . which led to points and then we’re chasing the game, which we shouldn’t have been so stressed about.
‘‘We just had to get back into the game and giving penalties away and it just sort of unfolded that way.
“That’s the most disappointing thing because the Highlanders are a good rugby team.
“We do need to understand that you’ve got to be accurate at times as well.’’
The Highlanders lineout struggled to fire yet again as Hurricanes lock Warner Dearns — the Kiwi-born Japanese international — caused havoc for the Highlanders’ targets.
Having two starting locks in Mitch Dunshea and Tomas Lavanini sidelined also did not help.
“I think the lineout has been a bit of an Achilles heel for us this year,’’ Joseph said.
“The opposition we played . . . were pretty good. I coached that boy [Dearns, in Japan].
“He’s a pretty good rugby player, international quality lock, and you know, he really shut us down.
“It’s kind of what happens if you lose a little bit of confidence around the callers. ‘‘Callers sort of, you know, start second guessing themselves.
“That’s been an ongoing issue for us — we need to fix it.’’
The Brumbies came from behind to topple the Chiefs 33-24 to cap veteran prop James Slipper’s milestone, becoming the most capped Super Rugby player with 203 games, in Canberra.
It cemented the Brumbies in third spot, while the Chiefs shuffled back to sixth.
The Reds (fourth) handed the Fijian Drua (ninth) their second loss at home this season with a 21-6 win, the Crusaders (fifth) pumped Moana Pasifika (11th) 50-21 and the Blues ran away 35-20 against the Waratahs (seventh) to jump into second place.
- Hurricanes and former All Blacks assistant Jason Holland has been appointed as the head coach of the Blues on a three-year deal. He will join the Auckland team next year, taking over from Vern Cotter who is joining the Reds as head coach.