They withstood everything the Blues threw at them and led 6-0 after 30 minutes.
The effort was great.
But, as has happened too many times this season, the discipline was not.
A red card to hooker Andrew Makalio after 22 minutes was a turning point.
There is only so far effort and guts will take a team, already vastly outmatched, when playing a man down for 20 minutes.
Two tries in the last 10 minutes of the first half followed, and this Highlanders team was broken.
The Blues backs showed all of their firepower, cutting through the Highlanders to run out 35-6 victors in their Super Rugby Pacific quarterfinal at Eden Park on Saturday.
Perhaps that would have happened anyway.
But Makalio’s moment of madness — a shoulder charge to the head of Blues lock Tom Robinson — certainly stamped out any chance of clinging on.
Not unlike Sam Gilbert’s red card two weeks ago, this was not an unlucky incident like so many are these days.
While Robinson had dropped his head and the contact was low, this was a straight shoulder charge with no arms — that has always been illegal, not just recently.
In the modern game, knowing how strict officials are around contact to the head, you have just got to be better.
Still, the Highlanders battled on for 10 minutes and a Marty Banks penalty even doubled their lead.
But two quick-fire tries — Akira Ioane and Beauden Barrett both scything through gaps in the defence — made it 14-6 at halftime.
Barrett scored a second just after halftime, finishing a superb passage of interplay, after Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was put into space by Hoskins Sotutu.
AJ Lam added another, chasing and collecting a high ball, which was completely missed by Banks, to score in the corner.
Tuivasa-Sheck crossed for the final one, cutting through the backline out wide and cruising over.
The decision to break up the promising midfield combination of Thomas Umaga-Jensen and Josh Timu — to bring back Scott Gregory — seemed strange before the game.
It seems even more weird now, given Gregory’s nine missed tackles in the midfield.
There were bright spots for the Highlanders.
Ethan de Groot dominated Ofa Tu’ungafasi in the scrum and must surely be making a case to be the All Blacks starting loosehead prop.
Folau Fakatava was electric at halfback, while No8
Marino Mikaele-Tu’u had another strong outing with the ball.
There was never enough firepower in this team, though.
Aside from the occasional flash, the Highlanders rarely genuinely looked like scoring a try.
