You could conclude that from Harbour coach Peter McIntyre’s comments.
His Hawks were thumped 69-15 by Kaikorai at Watson Park on Saturday.
The scoreboard suggested one-way traffic.
The statistics suggested Harbour dominated.
Hmmmm.
"It is a hard one," McIntyre said.
"You know, sometimes this happens in rugby, doesn’t it? But if I look at the stats from that game, we had 56% possession.
"We had 19 minutes with the ball compared to their 16.
"We spent more time in their 22m, but it was really just defence and execution which let us down.
"And then we just sort of panicked.
"But on the other side of the coin, Kaik were very, very good. They moved the ball wide quickly and they took advantage of space.
"But if you looked at the stats, and then looked at the result, you’d think ‘crikey, what went wrong?’."
Kaikorai had a similar result earlier in the season. They were smoked 66-15 by Green Island at Miller Park.
That match turned out to be an outlier.
Perhaps the same will be true for the Hawks.
They had set the benchmark before their shock performance against Kaikorai.
First five Rique Miln was out with an ankle complaint and is expected to return next weekend. He has been influential for Harbour, so he was sorely missed.
Openside flanker Toni Taufa has been in impressive form. He rarely misses a tackle and still managed to enhance his reputation despite the heavy loss to Kaikorai.
Tighthead Darius Fidow has moved down from Christchurch and is getting better and better as the season goes on.
And veteran centre Aleki Morris-Lome, who clocked 100 games for the club recently, has been a rock in the midfield.
Harbour (19 points) host Alhambra-Union (0) tomorrow. AU have been struggling again this season. They have conceded nearly 400 points in six games and remain winless.
Dunedin (20) host battlers Zingari-Richmond (7).
Both those games shape as easy results to pick.
The other two games are not so easy.
Taieri (25) host an injury-depleted Green Island (22) in a top-of-the-table clash. The Grizzlies have more players on crutches than there are crisps in a packet these days.
Kaikorai (20), who have rocketed up the standings, will be at home to Southern (18), who have been up and down.
University (17) have the bye.
