Halfback Aaron Smith was taken off in the second half of the match against the Chiefs and the entire front row departed after 50 minutes. The Chiefs completed a mighty comeback to draw the match after the replacements had been made.
Highlanders assistant coach Glenn Delaney said there were always conversations about how to best use the entire squad.
''The rugby game is not a game any more of 15 players. When I played you had 15 players and you only came off if you were injured,'' he said.
''But the reality now is, tactically and strategically, you use the bench to your advantage. We are very comfortable with taking Aaron Smith off and putting Kayne Hammington on. Kayne has been one of our best performers and started a lot of rugby for us.
''We look at what is going on with the energy of the game, the game management, all sides of the ball and the decisions made ... we just make the decisions that are best suited to the contest in front of us.''
Delaney said taking off Smith early was not the wrong decision.
''What you have to also factor in is that Aaron has had some time out. So when you look at loading and trying to stretch it out, we might have been having a different conversation. We trusted Kayne and he did some good stuff for us.''
Delaney said the side was bruised and battered from the intense game against the Chiefs and as a defence coach it was disappointing to concede points late.
''We made pretty big progress in the weeks before that. But there was a couple of things that the guys missed and that was not something big. One thing you had to understand was the Chiefs were desperate to get something out of the game. We just got to look at these moments and make sure we are doing the right thing.''
The Jaguares were next in line and Delaney said the side was looking forward to facing the rugged Argentinians.
''We'll be looking to run them round. That is our game. We want to move teams around and with our forwards' skills we can put them into space.''
He said some of the players had logged up plenty of minutes in the past few weeks and lock Jackson Hemopo, flanker James Lentjes and second five-eighth Tei Walden were pretty sore after the game. Changes might come for this week's game.
''We've had eight NZ derbies in 11 games and that was going to take a toll. But we will be looking after guys this week.''