Rugby: Highlanders desperate for win

Highlanders coach Glenn Moore. Photo / Getty Images

Highlanders' coach Glenn Moore has called for cool heads and clinical finishing as his team seeks to resurrect their Super 14 rugby campaign against the Sharks in Durban on Saturday.

Currently 10th on table, eight points adrift of the fourth-placed Sharks, the Highlanders are desperate to kick off their competition-closing three-match overseas stint with a win.

"I think we've got to be quite clinical in how we play the game - we can't afford to be turning over ball against them, and we've got to attack them," Moore said from Durban.

"It's never easy over here but we desperately need to win this game...only a couple of weeks ago, the Crusaders had to do the same thing and they did, so it can be done."

The Crusaders held on for a gritty 13-10 win over the Sharks in Durban two weeks ago, and the Highlanders are looking to emulate the defending champions' effort, especially in set piece play and at the breakdown.

"We're looking for improvement in our set piece for a start - we were pretty disappointed with that last week, as it had been a strength of ours all through the year," Moore said, recalling the Highlanders' 11-18 loss to the Stormers at Carisbrook.

"We've had a lot of work go into that this week, and also we need to be a lot more clinical at the breakdown."

The Sharks had the bye last week, leaving them plenty of time to brood on their upset loss to the Crusaders, which was preceded the week before by an even more startling 6-31 loss to competition tail-enders the Cheetahs.

Moore has no doubt the Sharks will be smarting from the unaccustomed losses, and is expecting them to come out firing.

"They've got a good set piece, and their scrum particularly works really well. There are some good individuals in their loosies and their overall defence is very, very sound."

Although the Highlanders have to look back four years to their last win over the Sharks - a 43-7 away win - Moore is keeping in mind the more recent memory of last year's narrow loss 17-19 loss as encouragement.

"Last year at Carisbrook, they scored an intercept try to win, and up until then we were well and truly in it."

The Highlanders came off the bye well with a 24-19 win over the Queensland Reds in Invercargill earlier this month, but have struggled since, with losses to the Blues and Stormers effectively derailing their playoff hopes.

However, Moore has not given up hope yet of threatening for a semifinal spot, and has targeted the Highlanders' last three games of season as "must-win".

"That's what we need to do to stay alive. The table's pretty congested, there's not very much between 10 and one," he said.

"As the old adage goes, we'll take it week by week."

The Highlanders, with four wins to their credit going into this weekend's game, have already improved on last year's competition, when they finished 11th with just three wins.

"We haven't focused too much on last year - we had a group of young guys we started with then, and we've got a number of new ones this year in their first year as well," Moore said.

"I think we're a better overall side than we were last year, and we're not done yet."

- NZPA