Rugby: Limp Highlanders lack heart for Stormers battle

The Highlanders made shocking decisions for most of a hot afternoon. Photo / Getty Images

Whatever your yardstick, by whichever means you choose to be judged, the Highlanders could not escape one fact from their Cape Town implosion.

This was one hell of a tame defeat.

Thirty-three to nil and lucky to get the nil, as someone once joked. But there was little for the Highlanders to joke about in a four-tries-to-nil defeat. So much of what they did at Newlands was poor, inaccurate in execution and downright self-defeating.

Michael Hobbs' ludicrously optimistic 79th minute attempted chip through a flat defence epitomised the Highlanders' frequent wrong options.

The ball rebounded off an opponent standing no more than a couple of yards away and bounced up for Bryan Habana to boot on, win the race for the touchdown and score the Stormers' bonus-point try.

The Highlanders had been making shocking decisions like that for most of a hot afternoon in the Cape. But most worrying of all, they looked lethargic throughout, unable to lift the malaise that seemed to hang heavy over their efforts.

It was like that even before Jimmy Cowan was forced off after 50 minutes with a dislocated finger which medics could not put back instantly on the field.

Cowan's grimace of agony seemed apt given the Highlanders' regular and shocking errors. Hobbs' late charged-down kick was by no means his first, but he didn't learn. The Highlanders' lineout was a self-destruction zone, with eight of their throws being lost.

Nor was that the extent of Jason Rutledge's poor day; he missed Stormers wing Sireli Naqelevuki in a tackle just before half time and needed Adam Thomson's tackle on fullback Joe Pietersen on the line to save a try.

The Highlanders somehow never acquainted themselves with their game. Thomson berated Israel Dagg for throwing a shocking pass; Hobbs missed a drop goal; Jason Shoemark's kick upfield went over the dead ball line; holes regularly appeared in the defence and no defender was ever really taken out with a well-timed pass by the Highlanders backs. Their sideways movement and passing was a gift to the drift defence.

Thomson did his best to plug as many holes as possible, but he couldn't do everything. The Stormers led 16-0 at halftime, hooker Deon Fourie scoring their only try of the first half after the Highlanders lost their throw into a lineout.

But the home side, although well organised defensively, laboured to make an impression in attack, despite the presence of Springboks Habana and Jacques Fourie in their backline.

The loss of Cowan, injured in the act of trying to drive through a wall of bodies to score by the post, was not quite the calamity it might have been. Replacement halfback Sean Romans looked lively and did his best to inject some urgency amid the general torpor.

But the tide was rolling inexorably against the Highlanders. Hobbs had to scuttle back to deny Schalk Burger a try, but the Springbok finally forced his way over after 61 minutes, finishing off one of the rolling mauls that so troubled the Highlanders' defence.

Another followed eight minutes later from a similar move, touched down by Pieter Louw and it was 26-0 with 11 minutes left.

The Highlanders had looked a sorry, beaten bunch well before then and Habana's late breakaway try was the last nail in their coffin. All this and the Bulls at Pretoria to come this Saturday.

Yet coach Glenn Moore sparked defiance afterwards. "We have been there before. We fronted up to them last year when they were on a roll.

"I know these guys have a backbone and they will front up next week. That match has got to be a motivation for the week."

But Moore conceded his disappointment at such a limp display, even if there was still much energy shown. "We are clearly disappointed. We came up against a Stormers side that was pretty clinical and aggressive especially around the breakdown.

"Our game came under pressure from our set piece failures, particularly our lineout."

Prop Jamie Mackintosh admitted the Highlanders' faults.

"In the first half, we made quite a lot of tackles and exerted a lot of energy. But even when we had the ball we were going five or six phases and only making eight metres. It was a pretty tough day at the office."

* Peter Bills is a rugby writer for the Independent in London