Nice to have bragging rights [Joe Wheeler]
That was a pretty physical game against Otago at Trafalgar Park. I might not have looked too flash at the end of the game but it was just a little scratch by my eye.
I'm not sure what happened - it was probably a sprig in the face - but after a couple of stitches it's all good.
Leaving aside my banged up face, I guess you could say we won ugly.
Otago put us under a lot of pressure with their kicking game in the first half and we didn't play a lot of rugby in their half. We always knew they could be a bit of a banana skin but given our poor start, it was massive for us to hang in there and pick up a bonus point win.
It shows the character of this team that we played only about 40 minutes of decent rugby but stuck to the process and were patient in that second half.
There were a few of my Highlanders team-mates in the Otago side so it was good to get the win. You relish playing against your mates because the bragging rights are sweeter.
Whenever the Otago boys start chirping next season, I'll be able to knock them back with the results of this game.
But seriously, all credit to Otago. They played really well in the first half and didn't give us a lot of opportunities, so we got a bit frustrated and tried to force things. We know we're really good at open field rugby and that comes naturally to a lot of the players.
But what we want to be known as is a clinical side that sticks to its systems for 80 minutes. That's what the great teams like Canterbury do. They are really ruthless about hammering away in their system no matter what the score is.
Canterbury is next up for us on Saturday, and they are like the big brother in the Crusaders franchise. We always circle this match on the calendar - it's the big one for the year.
Everyone gets excited and wants to show their hand because if you do well against Canterbury, you're likely to get noticed by the Crusaders and other Super Rugby teams. They have been the front-runners in this competition for the past half dozen years and it will be a really good test for us.
They will be looking to make amends after dropping their last couple of games so there will be no problem getting pumped up for this week's game.
Now that we have guaranteed our spot in the semis, our goal is a home semifinal.
We've got a few banged-up bodies so having that spot should give us a the chance to manage workloads a bit before then
We'll be doing light training and focusing on recovery and getting the mental side right.A lot of the guys are carrying little niggles, which is pretty normal for rugby players, but some of the guys have had big workloads and big years.
Keep it long and keep it on
