Highlanders, Waratahs battle for survival

A battle to put their Super Rugby Pacific campaign back on track looms when the Highlanders host NSW Waratahs at the Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin, New Zealand, on Saturday.

Last weekend the Highlanders were soundly beaten 24-14 by the Fijian Drua while the Waratahs suffered a 20-17 shock loss to Western Force.

A disappointed Highlanders head coach Jamie Joseph wanted his team out of Fiji as soon as possible to make the wrongs right at home before hosting the Waratahs.

Waratahs head coach Dan McKellar has lashed his under-achieving side for being “bullied at the breakdown” in an insipid performance that places their Super Rugby Pacific finals hopes in peril.

Attacking trumps Max Jorgensen and Joseph-Aukuso Suaali’i were rendered irrelevant as the Waratahs racked up almost 300 tackles in a rueful 20-17 loss to the Western Force last Friday night.

McKellar pulled no punches when asked to assess his side’s performance.

“We got squeezed to death, couldn’t get out of our end. Physically dominated in and around the ruck,” he told rugby.com.au.

“Yeah, plenty of effort, but parts of night we got beaten in our own game.

“Bullied in and around the ruck, so that’s both attack and defence.

“They just came here with a pretty bland plan, and it worked. Just disappointed that we didn’t start to fire a punch until we were down by 10 points.”

Suaali’i was making his long-awaited return from eight weeks out with a hamstring injury but barely had an impact at Allianz Stadium.

“Stop making 300 tackles,” McKellar said when asked how Suaali’i could be more effective.

“I like the ball in Max’s hands. If you’re making 300 tackles, like how many did we make last week? 260? No one’s touching the ball.

“And when you’ve got 32 per cent territory, all you’re doing is defending and then trying to get out of your own end.

“So I can’t flick a switch and be like, ‘Su’, here’s space. You’ve got to earn that.”

The defeat leaves the Waratahs stranded in eighth spot and likely needing to win at least three of their last four games- three of which are away from Sydney - to scrape into the top-six playoffs.

“I’ve not even looked at the ladder and not even thinking about that,” McKellar said.

“But I know when we’re at our best, as we’ve shown sporadically, we can beat anyone. But the gap between our best and not our best is too big at the moment.”

The match kicks-off at 4.35pm.