{"id":296484,"date":"2023-05-14T07:28:51","date_gmt":"2023-05-14T07:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=296484"},"modified":"2023-05-14T09:59:19","modified_gmt":"2023-05-14T09:59:19","slug":"highlanders-hopes-in-jeopardy-after-try-frenzy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=296484","title":{"rendered":"Highlanders' hopes in jeopardy after try frenzy"},"content":{"rendered":"

T\ufeffhis article originally appeared on Stuff and has been reproduced with permission<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Highlanders<\/a> produced arguably their most compelling hour of rugby<\/a> of the season to edge in front of the Brumbies<\/a> after 60 minutes, but the wheels fell off in a big way after that.<\/p>\n

The Brumbies scored three tries in the last 20 minutes \u2013 despite having a man in the sin bin for half of that time \u2013 to leave the Highlanders three competition points off the top eight.<\/p>\n

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It was a bitterly disappointing finish after Jona Nareki had offered Highlanders fans some real hope with an excellent display.<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

Freddie Burns also stamped his class over proceedings, with the variety and accuracy of his passing and kicking game frequently asking questions of the Brumbies' defence.<\/p>\n

He engineered tries to Nareki and Thomas Umaga-Jensen, formed a promising combination with Folau Fakatava, and was only denied a try by some clever covering work by Brumbies halfback Nic White.<\/p>\n

Saula Ma'u also made a statement in a rare start in the No 3 jersey.<\/p>\n

At just 23 years old, Ma'u is very much in the development phase of his career, but he scrummaged strongly against 127-cap Wallabies prop James Slipper.<\/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

At one scrum towards the end of the first half, Ma'u completely overpowered Slipper, bending him backwards and walking over the top of him in a set-piece display that will delight coach Clark Dermody.<\/p>\n

At that stage, the Highlanders had two loose forwards locking the scrum \u2013 Hugh Renton was packing down alongside Shannon Frizell \u2013 after Josh Dickson was replaced by Marino Mikaele-Tu'u.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/SuperRugby\/status\/1657632270788988928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

However, the Highlanders' inability to clear their lines after scoring was their Achilles heel. Time and time again, they would score and allow the Brumbies to strike back immediately through small but costly errors.<\/p>\n

It proved particularly costly in the second half when the Highlanders coughed up three tries in that final quarter.<\/p>\n

It was a repeat of the Highlanders' loss against the Waratahs two weeks ago<\/a>, when the Highlanders also hit the lead on the hour mark and saw an opposition player sent to the naughty chair, but failed to capitalise.<\/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>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

T\ufeffhis article originally appeared on Stuff and has been reproduced with permission The Highlanders produced arguably their most compelling hour of rugby of the season […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":296486,"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\/296484"}],"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=296484"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296488,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296484\/revisions\/296488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/296486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=296484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=296484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=296484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}