The Cats once again put in a superb effort, but a litany of errors and wrong options ultimately cost as they went down 16-12 in a hard-fought Vodacom Super 12 encounter at Ellis Park on Friday night.
The Highlanders led 10-9 at the break.
The Cats now have a tough time ahead with the overseas leg around the corner, after a bye next weekend, and just one win (versus the Bulls in round one) in the bag.
The Cats looked hungry in the opening gambits, but could not quite translate that urgency — and good field position — into points. Captain Wikus van Heerden was again leading from the front and was responsible for gaining the home team the hard yards as well as engineering a couple of turnovers early on.
The Cats were showing admirable patience, but at one stage they held onto the ball for all of seven phases, but gained not a metre up field, and then coughed the ball up.
Hooker Schalk Brits was omnipresent, popping up just about everywhere on the field in the first half, making hits, showing his pace with ball in hand and generally creating problems for the Highlanders.
The visitors were, however, playing a waiting game of their own and, after absorbing the initial pressure, they worked their way in Cats territory with flanker Josh Blackie prominent.
Fullback Ben Blair kicked the first points of the match after 12 minutes, but it was the home side that was making inroads and they proceeded to dominate and were rewarded with three sweetly struck Andre Pretorius penalties to lead 9-3 with five minutes in the half remaining. With the loose trio working tirelessly and the back three in fine form — fullback Conrad Jantjes in particular — the Cats were unlucky not to be further ahead.
That hard-earned lead though was then flittered away with the halftime whistle imminent and the blame lay squarely on scrumhalf Paul Delport.
The No 9 had a moment of mental disintegration when he tried to chip inside his 22 and the Highlanders pounced to send flank Craig Newby over under the poles. The conversion gave the New Zealanders a lead they hardly deserved at the end of a tight first half.
The Cats unrelenting approach stretched the visitors after the restart, while the home teams’ superb defence kept the Highlanders on their toes. Pretorius kicked his fourth penalty in the 53rd minute for a 12-10 lead, but the loss of Jantjes on the hour mark caused disruption in the ranks.
The Highlanders seemed to sense the Cats disorder and pressed to take advantage. The Cats errors that characterised the early stages of this encounter returned and Blair was on hand to punish them twice more to give the Highlanders 16-12 advantage with eight minutes remaining.
Despite a concerted final onslaught and the late sin-binning of Filipo Levi, the Cats fell short once again, and they will forever be left wondering if, should they have held onto the ball in the final move of the match, would the result have been different.
Point-scorers: CATS 12 (9): Penalties: Andre Pretorius (4) ; HIGHLANDERS 16 (10) Tries: Craig Newby. Conversions: Ben Blair (1). Penalties: Blair (3).
Referee: Matt Goddard (Australia). – Sapa