{"id":290728,"date":"2023-04-28T06:05:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T06:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=290728"},"modified":"2023-04-28T12:59:50","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T12:59:50","slug":"desperate-kiwi-skipper-laments-ugly-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=290728","title":{"rendered":"'Desperate' Kiwi skipper laments 'ugly' loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stand-in captain Aaron Smith said the clash between his Highlanders<\/a> and the Waratahs<\/a> was an 'ugly' contest showing just how desperate both sides were to win.<\/p>\n

The second match of Super Rugby Pacific's<\/a> Culture Round was littered with discipline issues on both sides, each team losing a man to the sin bin.<\/p>\n

The Highlanders failed to capitalise when the Waratahs lost Lalakai Foketi for a dangerous tackle.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific and Super W seasons on the home of rugby, Stan Sport.<\/strong><\/em> All matches streaming ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

However, the visitors were punished when they lost one of their own at the death when Pari Pari Parkinson was sent off for a cynical play.<\/p>\n

\"Highlanders<\/p>\n

That came right on their own goal line and with less than two minutes to go Mahe Vailanu scored the only try of the second half for the Waratahs.<\/p>\n

A one-point deficit turned into a one-point advantage with the conversion \u2013 ultimately the deciding factor.<\/p>\n

"Pretty ugly, to be honest," Smith told Stan Sport's Drew Mitchell.<\/p>\n

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"Two teams desperate for a win and trying really hard. You could see both teams really desperate and trying their hearts out but probably lacked a bit of accuracy \u2013 both teams.<\/p>\n

"Lacked that real calmness to finish things and it was the team who could have the last punch.<\/p>\n

"We had a chance to really put it out there and our skill errors and execution let us down.<\/p>\n

"Yeah, bummer."<\/p>\n

\"Epic<\/p>\n

Smith scored one of the match-defining tries that put the Highlanders out to a 20-16 lead after half time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He went off just short of the final play that secured the Waratahs the win.<\/p>\n

Smith noted inconsistencies across the board by both teams, as neither team really took a hold of the contest.<\/p>\n

"You could see either team, there were no long stretches of phases," said Smith.<\/p>\n

\"Waratahs<\/p>\n

"There was no consistency in play and no real dominance in that second half from either team, but it was the team that got the last try,<\/p>\n

"We knew we could hold the ball and play some rugby in the second half.<\/p>\n

"We had two or three two-on-ones and three-on-twos and just poor decision-making and poor execution and you've got to nail those and I think it's probably proof of where both teams are at in the comp.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1651910674623389696<\/a><\/p>\n

"I wish when I came off it was at a better state of the game, not five to six points," he added.<\/p>\n

"That's the hardest thing about Super Rugby Pacific, they're 80-minute games and the cream of the crop are at the top because they nail their execution and they're ruthless in their detail.<\/p>\n

"We're still chasing that and we got shown a lesson in that last five minutes. They waited, patient, and stuck in, used their forward to get their last five metres and yeah, it's a bummer, it's been a hard tour."<\/p>\n

The Waratahs will head north to Townsville to face the Queensland Reds while the Highlanders host the Chiefs in Dunedin.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stand-in captain Aaron Smith said the clash between his Highlanders and the Waratahs was an 'ugly' contest showing just how desperate both sides were to […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":290730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290728"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=290728"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290734,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290728\/revisions\/290734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/290730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=290728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=290728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=290728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}