The Bulls romped to a 47-17 win in Pretoria to hand the Highlanders their eighth defeat in nine games.
Moore could only watch as the defending champions scored six tries to two and delivered his side a brutal lesson in Super 14 rugby.
The Highlanders have been competitive in most of their games this season but they were badly exposed yesterday, and even Moore had to concede the fact.
‘‘That's definitely our worst performance of the season and that's pretty disappointing,'' he told the Otago Daily Times from Pretoria.
‘‘I don't know what went wrong. We appeared to have plenty of energy during the week and we trained accurately.''
The Bulls did most of their damage in the first 20min, scoring three tries, and the last 10min, when they added two more to blow out the score.
Moore felt the Highlanders could only blame themselves for getting in a hole so early in the game.
‘‘We had some soft turnovers and gave them the ball, in the first half in particular, and we went to ground too early.
‘‘We also tried to force quite a few passes and that really hurt us.''
Highlanders winger Fetu'u Vainikolo received a second yellow card in two weeks and Moore was far from impressed at the star winger's actions.
‘‘That was disappointing and it was costly,'' he said of Vainikolo's aerial tackle of Bulls fullback Zane Kirchner.
‘‘We have to be far more disciplined and we can't afford to make those critical errors. ‘‘The disappointing thing for Fetu'u is that if he gets one more card, he'll be before the judiciary.''
The other bad news for the Highlanders was that two teams near them at the bottom of the table, the Reds and the Bulls, had wins over the weekend to scoot up the table.
As well, the Stormers, the Highlanders' next opponent, proved their credentials with a 20-12 win against the Hurricanes in Cape Town.
The Highlanders have dropped to 12th in the Super 14, level on 11 points with the Cheetahs and four points ahead of the Lions.
There is now overwhelming pressure on the Highlanders to win at least one of their next two games, knowing they come home to play the Blues and the Crusaders.
‘‘That is clearly the case. We have to get something out of this tour,'' Moore said.
The main injury concern for the Highlanders is No 8 Steven Setephano. He has just recovered from a calf niggle and now he has a damaged shoulder.
