Lack of urgency
Many things contributed to the Highlanders' loss to the Force, but in the end it came down to one major factor: in the last ten minutes, the Highlanders lacked the urgency and intensity to win.
Down by seven against a 13-man team, they had eight minutes to score twice and given they were camped on the Force line when the visitors lost their two players, this should have been achievable. The first mistake came in trying to push back the Force scrum, albeit a six-man scrum.
In a game where the scrums had been messy and given the position on the field, it was inevitable there was going to be a reset, or a penalty, which was just wasting time. The majority of scrum resets and penalties come when a dominant scrum tries a little too much to assert this dominance and leave the ball in the scrum when it is available to be used. When time is of the essence, you have to get it in and make your move as efficiently as you can.
Then, with four minutes to go, they took far too long deciding what to do with a midfield penalty and then walked to the lineout. It was frustrating to watch and plainly obvious to everyone in the stadium. When they eventually scored their try, it was far too late.
You have got to wonder what was going through their heads. Had someone made a mistake in calculating the score differential or were they simply playing for a draw?
In the end, it was this that meant they did not even have an opportunity to win this game.
The Force hoodoo
For whatever reason, the Force are a bogey team for the Highlanders, having now won all of their past six meetings. While they can be tough at home and often act as a banana-skin team for those travelling back from South Africa, they should be beaten at home. Yet the past four times the two sides have met in Highlanders territory, the visitors have gone away with the spoils.
Two were average performances in Queenstown, when the Highlanders were struggling against everyone, while in 2011 they lost in the infamous green jersey game after a great start to the season. This time it was a lack of urgency and a few one-off mistakes that were costly. The Force have been one of the bottom two teams in Super Rugby over the past decade, they are not one that should be so dominant over the Highlanders.
One-off mistakes
Once again it was the odd mistake that cost the Highlanders. A misread on defence, an intercept pass, a straight missed tackle and a charged-down kick all translated directly into 28 of the Force's 31 points. That is it, four mistakes, the difference between a handy win and a narrow loss.
Statistically looking at this game, there is no way the Highlanders should have lost. They were dominant in nearly every category. It seems to sum up the way the team has gone over the past two seasons. They do a lot of good things: defending well, hitting rucks hard, running dangerously and generally taking the right options. Yet then they go and slip up in one of these areas perhaps once in a game, and it negates all the good work.
The forwards were good
Generally when a team loses, it is because the opposition forward pack got the better of them. This was not the case in this game though, which is encouraging. The Highlanders' tight five all got through plenty of work as always, with the mobile props both popping up all over the place and also being integral in what was a dominant scrum. The locks were both hard workers and Liam Coltman did plenty of good work, despite his two costly errors.
In the loose Nasi Manu had a huge game, leading the team in tackles and carrying strongly, going forward every time he took the ball into contact and giving the team momentum. Shane Christie got better as the game went on and made some good runs in the second half while also tackling well, showing that he is going to be a valuable addition to the team this year.
The side began to look a lot better when the forwards decided to have a go at the opposition in close. They used a lot of forward runners hitting the ball flat and coming back on a sharp angle which made inroads into the Force defence.
While this game did not go their way, you are generally going to struggle to win a game without a good forward pack, so to see them go well has to bode well for the rest of the season.
