‘We gave it our best’: Highlanders captain reflects on tough loss

The Highlanders “gave it our best” on Friday night against the Blues, but fell painfully short of a result that they so desperately needed.

Heading into the final round of the regular season, the men from the deep south occupied eighth spot on the Super Rugby Pacific ladder.

If nothing changes, that’d be enough – they’d live to fight another day in the playoffs. But the 16-9 defeat to the Blues takes things out of their control.

“We gave it our best, we gave a lot of heart, we couldn’t quite nail it but we put ourselves in a good position,” captain Billy Harmon said post-game on Sky Sport.

“We just couldn’t quite finish it off.”

The Highlanders need a series of results to fall their way in round 15 – but the good news is that one already has.

At the time of writing, the Brumbies have knocked the Melbourne Rebels out of playoff contention with a 33-17 win at Canberra’s GIO Stadium on Friday.

If the Queensland Reds beat the Fijian Drua and the Chiefs defeat the Western Force in Perth, then the Highlanders will be playoff bound.

But if not, their season draws to a close.

Aaron Smith’s Highlanders career will come to an end as well.

If this is the end for the Highlanders in 2023, then there’s plenty of positives that they can take out of the season moving forward.

“I think we’ve come a long way, we’ve built up heaps, and I think we’re in a good spot for the next couple of years,” Harmon added.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys coming through that are really starting to find some form so it’s awesome to see.”

The Highlanders opened the scoring at Eden Park with an early penalty goal to midfielder Sam Gilbert. The goalkicking ace another added another successful attempt to the score shortly after.

But the Blues dominated possession, and eventually made the Highlanders pay.

Lock Patrick Tuipulotu crossed for the first try of the match in the 29^th minute – and this turned out to the only try of the contest as well.

The Blues took a 16-6 lead into the break, and another Sam Gilbert penalty was the only change to the score in the second term.

Having lost by seven points, the Highlanders secured a losing bonus point. But the playoffs is the goal, and again, that’s now out of their control.