A week after Two Cents Rugby crowned Caleb Tangitau as a must-have for the All Blacks mix, the same channel was the first to flag that the Highlanders flyer's selection window may have just slammed shut.
In his Round 14 reaction video to the Chiefs' 42-12 win in Hamilton, Two Cents Rugby host Cents delivered the news bluntly. The Highlanders' season is effectively done, and the man who lit up Round 13 went off injured in the dying minutes of a match that mathematically ended the campaign.
"I think we can stick a fork in the Highlander season because it's done," Cents said. "Apart from their scrum, not a lot was going right for them. Their star player, Caleb Tangitau, picked up what looked like a pretty serious leg injury. It looked ligament, but I'm not a doctor. At the end of the game - it could very well affect his chances of an All Blacks call-up. We'll see. Hopefully it wasn't as bad as it looks, but it did look bad."
The injury came in the final minutes with the Highlanders already trailing 35-12 and chasing nothing more than a face-saving try.
"This is where Caleb gets injured, which is a brutal one," Cents said. "Tangitau goes down as he's making a step. Looks like his leg kind of pops. He immediately bangs the ground. Looks like a serious injury, but we'll see."
For the Highlanders, the result confirmed what their preview earlier in the week had hinted at - that even a scrum that won penalty after penalty cannot disguise wider problems. Two Cents Rugby highlighted blindside Lucas Casey as the lone shining light.
"Lucas Casey - 18 tackles, 22 carries, nine defenders beaten and a try. Partridge in a pear tree from that guy," Cents said. "He was bloody doing everything."
The Chiefs, by contrast, were ruthless every time the door cracked. The host noted the gulf in clinical edge - 22 entries in the game, with Damian McKenzie pulling strings from fullback and Anton Lienert-Brown picking off the late offload that sealed the bonus point.
"Chiefs have just been that little bit more dynamic," he said. "Line breaks 5-2. The Landers had ten entries and only converted one. They just do not have the clinical punch."
Lavanini's yellow card for cynical play after the Chiefs had levelled the scores at 7-7 was the swing moment, the host argued, with the Chiefs pouncing for two quick tries off the back of it.
"That Highlanders lead lasted what, seven minutes, and it has evaporated by that point," Cents said. "Then Lavanini gets himself yellow-carded and things really start to go wrong for the Landers."
Cents noted the Chiefs also had a worry of their own. Damian McKenzie picked up a heavy boot to the face during the match and looked rattled.
"They lost Damian to an injury as well," he said. "He took some claret after taking a boot to the face, but hopefully he's all right."
But the headline read in the Hamilton dressing room would not have been the bonus point. It would have been the table.
"A bonus point for them - could be a big difference maker with them and the Hurricanes chasing top spot before the end of the season," Cents said. "Really puts the pressure on the Canes for their game against the Blues tomorrow."
For Highlanders fans, though, the bigger headline was the brutal symmetry of Tangitau's week. Two Cents Rugby had just spent the better part of a video arguing he had to be in Scott Robertson's wider 33 for the July Tests. Now, on the same channel, the same host was warning his selection campaign might be over before it began.
"Tangitau goes down... looks like his leg kind of pops," Cents said. "It could very well affect his chances of an All Blacks call-up."
The full extent of the injury was not confirmed at the time of recording, with the Highlanders flyer leaving Hamilton on a cart. Whatever the medical update says, the timing - days out from selection meetings ahead of the Nations Championship opener - could not be worse.
