In the end a comfortable win for the Canes, after the score was 8-7 at halftime. They overcame a shaky scrum and some discipline problems – for a while there they gave away around half a dozen penalties in a row – to pull away in the second half. There was a lot of words exchanged in the forward exchanges, clearly no love lost between a few of these players.

Du’Plessis Kirifi was immense at the breakdown, his best performance of the year and a reminder that the depth at loose forward is very good. Cam Roigard added another very impressive performance that will do plenty to help his ambitions for higher honours. Salesi Rayasi picked up two tries and was very busy, coming off his wing a lot to spark play.

The Highlanders just fell apart in the second half after competing well in the first. Ethan de Groot’s scrummaging was very good and Hugh Renton continued his good form, but they are missing too many top class players in key positions. Cam Millar is no Mitch Hunt and that’s not saying much anyway, too much pressure was on Folau Fakatava to make things happen and it resulted in an intercept try to Roigard. Billy Harmon led by example all night, though.

The Canes will be kicking themselves for wasting another bonus point, the second game that’s happened in a row.

There was A LOT of whistle in this one, over 20 penalties and a lot of that can go on ref Damon Murphy’s interpretations. He lost control of the game early and his clarity with the players was poor.