No Thommo
Adam Thomson was the best player in the Highlanders over the past five years. The loose forward has departed and it would be an understatement to say he has been missed. He has left a massive hole. It is like replacing a 2013 Porsche with an Austin 1300.
Throw in Nasi Manu's absence - the big No8 is gone for the season with injury - and the loose forwards lack the dynamic ability and physical presence to be effective.
If a team has not got those attributes, they are going to struggle. At times, it seems like the Highlanders have eight tight forwards.
Players out of form
They say form is temporary and class is permanent. For some players - Aaron Smith and Colin Slade, in particular - their class needs to rise to the surface soon. Smith looks a shadow of last year's superstar, though he is hardly getting an armchair ride from those in front of him. He is just trying too hard, while Slade needs some miles on the clock.
Get over the line
If the field was 2m shorter, the Highlanders would have won more than half their games. The number of times they have been lowered just short of the tryline is higher than Don Elder's weekly pay packet.
They have to convert chances into points. You do not get any points for near misses. And the goalkicking has not been accurate enough.
Basics
The Highlanders like to hold on to the ball. Their game plan is to move the ball around before the gap opens up. But to do that effectively, they have to treasure possession.
There have been too many sloppy knock-ons, too many wayward passes. The lineout has been over-complicated, although there are signs that is coming right. The scrum also appears to be improving.
Dynamic athletes
There is plenty of experience in the Highlanders side but there is also a lack of dynamism. In the forward pack, there are not enough players who are quick off the mark, in both body and mind. There are plenty of hard, honest grafters, but you cannot have eight of them.
Brad Thorn has played well and has lost none of his toil. But there are too many around him of a similar ilk.
Getting to the breakdown quickly is a key in any game. And too often the Highlanders are not getting there with haste. Do dynamism and age go together?
Injuries
There was an advertisement of the Highlanders this year showing their 11 All Blacks. But will a match come where they actually all play together?
Tamati Ellison is yet to be sighted and he is a backline key. Various other players, such as Thorn, Ma'a Nonu and Tony Woodcock, have been injured and missed games.
Getting the best players on the field for the side is crucial. The backups for the injured players are not, by the way, of the same quality.
Referees
It is true a side finds faults with officials when it loses but it is also correct to say it is not a golden era for New Zealand rugby officialdom.
Poor calls have blighted games. Jonathon White may have Dunedin connections, but he did the Highlanders absolutely no favours when they lost to the Chiefs in Hamilton last month.
The offside line is all over the place, advantage calls have no consistency and touch judges need to concentrate on their job - deciding whether the ball has gone out - first and foremost.
Bad luck
They are a good bunch of jokers, the Highlanders, and are pleasantly engaging company. But luck is not travelling with them.
It does not matter how good you are, or how many gun players you have - you still need a bit of luck. The Highlanders have had none, or very little.
In Invercargill, a game-changing try came from a blatant knock-on. Chiefs winger Asaeli Tikoirotuma illegally batted down a ball to stop a try and the Highlanders - wait for it - get the put-in to a scrum. There were so many injuries against the Blues that Elliot Dixon, a No8, played on the wing for the last 20 minutes.
You make your own luck in rugby. But some things still have to fall your way.