Despite being the better team on the day and scoring two tries to the Pirates one, the penalty count didn't work in the Highlanders' favour.

Team manager James de Dassel said it wasn't a good day for the Highlanders.

"We had losses in all three grades which was unfortunate.

"In the first grade, we had a higher try count, but they were awarded a few penalty goals.

"The whole game was very dominated by the whistle.

"The referee was a bit whistle happy which didn't help our cause because there was too much stopping and starting.

"We like to just play the whole game and we couldn't do that because the ball wasn't able to get out wide.

"Other than that, the boys did play well.

"We still have a bit to work on with our set pieces, scrums and lineouts but the defence was really good.

De Dassel said Liam Bonner had a great game and Simon Newton also played really well.

"Fergus McIntosh and Joe de Dassel also went well and put in a lot of effort to keep the Pirates from scoring."

A few injuries also came out of Saturday's match.

"Mat Flanagan has hurt his knee, Jeremy Pilcher broke his cheek bone and Dave Kearsey suffered a knock to the head," de Dassel said.

"Jake McNeil was also injured and we still had Tala Vea out and we really missed him."

Coach Ron Walters said he wasn't impressed with a lot of the referees' decisions.

"The boys were definitely not 18 penalties bad," Walters said.

"Either there must be new rules or the referees need to have a look at them again.

“We were consistently penalised for things we shouldn’t have been.”

In the reserves, the Highlanders lost 20-0, the U-19s went down 20-0 and the U-17s were also unsuccessful 12-5.