Round four of the Asteron Life Super Rugby Competition has seen four of the five Australian teams take to the park with the Aquis Brumbies the only Australian team to claim victory.
The Brumbies are the leaders of the Australian conference in third position with the RaboDirect Melbourne Rebels sitting in seventh on six points.
The Waratahs, Western Force and St. George Queensland Reds sit in tenth, eleventh and twelfth respectively.
Highlanders 20 defeated the St. George Queensland Reds 13
The Queensland Reds took a bonus point from the loss against the Highlanders in Dunedin and Head Coach Richard Graham took positives from the match.
“I am disappointed because we didn’t get the result we came for. The effort of the group was very good but we will be asking ourselves questions like 'what if' and 'if only' because of the number of opportunities we created yet didn’t capitalise on," he said.
“We began the game well, but then got sucked into a battle of field position that we lost. We kicked aimlessly at times which allowed them to spend over 60% of the game in our half. We went away from our strategy and got dragged into theirs. They were physical and I give them credit for the disciplined approach they had.
“Our defensive effort was solid given they had the majority of position and possession. The boys scrambled well and at times had three defenders carrying the ball carrier into touch near our try line. The boys will take a lot of confidence from that aspect of the game.
“It was smart to take the three points at the end of the game to secure a losing bonus point. At the end of the rounds every point counts and you need to accumulate them wherever you can.
“We’ll push hard over the next week to ensure we address some aspects of our game ahead of next weekend."
The match saw the debut for the Reds of James O’Connor who played at flyhalf with Quade Cooper still injured.
Hurricanes 42 defeated the Western Force 13
The Hurricanes blew away the Western Force in Perth as the home team had a bad night at the office against the team from Wellington.
Western Force No. 8, Ben McCalman was a standout for the province in what was a disappointing performance.
Western Force Head Coach, Michael Foley was honest in his appraisal of his charges.
“When it comes to it, their body height was better than ours in a lot of those contact areas. Once you lose the collisions both in attack and defence it’s very hard to get into the game.
