Chiefs 39
Highlanders 24
This is starting to border on the bizarre.
The more games the Highlanders lose - and their winless streak now stands at a rather impressive six - the more they win compliments for their efforts.
This from Chiefs coach Ian Foster after his side's predictable win at Waikato Stadium on Saturday night: ‘‘I think you need to give the Highlanders a bit of grace. They've brought in a lot of players from outside the region and have had a lot of close losses. They've been trucking particularly well up till now.
‘‘It does show the fine line between winning and losing. I'm sure they're going to deliver something soon.''
It is almost like the rest of the country has decided to cut the runt of the New Zealand rugby litter some slack. That's fine to a point, but pats on the shoulder can quickly get to the point where they feel fulsome, more patronising than pick-me-up.
It is hard to say exactly how the Highlanders, inside their closeknit camp, are coping with what is the worst losing streak in their history and one of the competition's longest.
Their heads appear up, but one wonders how long that can last when they are consistently being beaten. This is a franchise with a proud history, remember.
In the heady days around the turn of the century, the Highlanders were expected to make the semifinals every season, and any slight dip in form was met with much browbeating and soul-searching.
Now they have been reduced to makeweights, forced to say nice things about their ability to be competitive to disguise what must be huge disappointment at their predicament.
Craig Newby is a proud man and he could be forgiven for losing his rag at this stage of the season. But the Highlanders captain sees no point in doing that.
‘‘You've got to pick your moments with a side like ours, with so many young guys. You can't just yell all the time,'' Newby said.
‘‘I'm not really a yeller anyway. You've got to be positive and you've got to keep your head up.''
The blunt facts from the loss to the Chiefs were that the Highlanders' defence was poor, some of their kicking was rubbish, they were lacking in urgency, and they generally appeared the vastly inferior team.
This was a bit of a hiding. And it actually could have been worse, had the notoriously profligate Chiefs not butchered some prime scoring opportunities.
Things looked grim - very grim - for the Highlanders when they trailed 22-0 after 26min, with two loose balls leading to Chiefs tries and Lelia Masaga brushing off a weak James Wilson tackle. But talk about a half of two halves.
Whether it was the Chiefs falling asleep or the Highlanders waking up, the game changed shape. From a scrum, Johnny Leota made a nice break and Niva Ta'auso was on hand to feed star winger Fetu'u Vainikolo for a try.
Just 4min later, a tap was taken quickly and Adam Thomson found Hoani MacDonald, whose stunning run of form continued when he thundered past Sitiveni Sivivatu on the flank to score.
Back in the game, it was inexcusable of the Highlanders to lose focus and let Masaga score his second just 37sec into the second half.
Amends were made when Newby popped a delicious behind-the-back pass to Vainikolo, who ran 50m and nearly scored, with MacDonald following up to complete his brace.
That narrowed the gap to eight points, but the Chiefs fired back with two relatively simple tries to lock the game away. It was not a great 80min of rugby.
There was a flat atmosphere and some ugly handling.
For the Highlanders, there was some pleasure to be taken in the contribution of the scrum the marvellous development of Vainikolo and the season-best performance of lock Hayden Triggs.
But enough of the warm fuzzies.
It has been a dismal season and only a series of wins can save it.
Chiefs 39 (Lelia Masaga 2, Brendon Leonard, Liam Messam, Stephen Donald, Mils Muliaina tries; Stephen Donald 3 conversions, penalty goal), Highlanders 24 (Hoan MacDonald 2, Fetu'u Vainikolo, Mike Delany tries; Danie Bowden 2 conversions). Half-time: Chiefs 22-12. Crowd 11,495. Referee: Stuart Dickinson (Australia).
