Championship prospects may have evaporated but the Highlanders had plenty of motivation to keep performing well when lining up against the Chiefs in Hamilton on Sunday.
The Highlanders may have won the last encounter, courtesy of Bryn Gatland's last-minute dropped goal, but games between the two sides were always close and assistant coach Mark Hammett said there was no way the Highlanders could afford to get ahead of themselves.
"We know playing up there is always a difficult challenge and one we look forward to," he said.
Maintaining possession for longer is a goal the Highlanders are seeking to boost their chances in Hamilton.
"We probably haven't had as much possession as we want. But we feel like, when we have got it, we've been doing pretty well. It is just maintaining possession for a little bit longer," he said.
The defensive demands resulting from not having more possession have been reflected in the high tackle statistics the side has suffered, having to make 188 tackles compared to only 89 for the Hurricanes in their last game.
That sort of effort demonstrated the bravery and courage within the side, but it also revealed how much energy the defensive demands were sucking out of the side, he said.
By retaining more of the possession, it would be the opposition who were making more tackles rather than the Highlanders, Hammett said.
Not making the situation any easier was the continuing injury toll for the side. The latest victim is second-string halfback Kayne Hammington who broke his hand and as a result, will be out for the rest of the campaign. That comes on top of the loss of lock Josh Dickson which affected the side's lineout last weekend.
But Hammett was confident the lineout issues against the Hurricanes could be turned around.
"We feel a big part of the lineout is good. Sometimes at the Cake Tin, there is a bit of wind. It was pretty uncharacteristic for this group. We're confident we'll get that right.
"When you look at our statistics we are second-most accurate. I think the top team is 87 or 86, so we are right there.
"We had a bad last 15 or 20 minutes. We just missed a couple, not by much, but it was certainly enough to change [momentum]," he said.
Winning the lineouts also ensured the side more possession so that would be another area of concentration for the side.
One boost for the side was the return of first five-eighths Josh Ioane for selection consideration. His return had been delayed due to his aggravating his original injury when returning to training two weeks ago.