The Highlanders handled the Stormers; the Hurricanes beat the Crusaders in Wellington again and the Blues rolled over the top of the Lions late in Johannesburg. And so was the New Zealand involvement in week four of Super Rugby.

Radio Sport Rugby Editor Nigel Yalden watched it all (twice – such a geek) in order to select his NZ Form Team of the Week:

1. Daniel Lienert-Brown (Highlanders) gets the nod again at loosehead prop due to high work rate around the field, low error rate & consistent work in his core roles at set piece against the Stormers.

2. Really hard to separate Ricky Riccitelli (Hurricanes) and Codie Taylor (Crusaders). Riccitelli was tremendous defensively with 14 tackles (equal top for the match) and while Taylor was more involved with ball in hand, both threw well to their respective lineouts.

3. Ofa Tu’ungafasi (Blues) produced his best effort of the season. He was busy around the field, especially at cleanout, he scrummed strongly and kept his error rate low. He also provide a good jolt off the bench late in the game when called on to return after being subbed midway through the second half.

4. When Patrick Tuipulotu (Blues) keeps things simple, by golly he’s very effective. He was nice and direct, with and without the ball & provided a nice offload in the match winning try.

5. Vaea Fifita (Hurricanes) grounded away manfully in the tight, particularly on defence where he racked up 13 tackles. Not as prominent with ball in hand by his standards, but very effective in and around the ruck.

6. Liam Squire (Highlanders) or Brad Shields (Hurricanes) – you tell me. I thought both were tremendous. Tougher to pick than the photo finish in Saturday’s Auckland Cup at Ellerslie. PS – I still reckon Five to Midnight won that race but congrats to the connections of Ladies First.

7. Ardie Savea (Hurricanes) was just into everything and everyone on Saturday night. His slightly higher involvement just gets him the nod over the always industrious Matt Todd (Crusaders)

8. Akira Ioane (Blues) is an incredibly gifted rugby player who is now starting to show the consistency many (myself included) have wanted to see from him. He still needs to learn not to react to provocation from the opposition but he showed his value to the Blues (and New Zealand Rugby that matter) with an excellent 80 minute contribution in Johannesburg – Forward of the Week

9. Aaron Smith (Highlanders) continues to look very sharp in the opening weeks of the competition. It wasn’t as good a performance as the one against the Blues, but still very influential and marginally better than TJ Perenara (Hurricanes) excellent outing in our nation’s capital 24 hours later.

10. In tandem with old mate Perenara, Beauden Barrett (Hurricanes) went about the task of directing his side around the field in the manner you’d expect of a now Super Rugby centurion – calm, decisive and with seemingly oodles of time to play with.

11. Ben Lam (Hurricanes) is, and has always been, a very good, solid player, be it in sevens or fifteens. Big, strong, fast and very good on the positional aspects of wing play, it’s good to see him flourishing in a  regular starting spot at Super Rugby level.

12. Ngani Laumape (Hurricanes) just keeps going from strength to strength. Yeah, we all know he’s a punishing runner and strong defender, but each week you see more polish to the other aspects of his play – Back of the Week.

13. OK, I’m cheating a smidge here, given that while he started at centre, Jack Goodhue (Crusaders) spent 76 minutes at second five following Ryan Crotty’s early departure and he showed he’s more than capable of playing that position at the Super Rugby too. However this allows me to select the two most accurate and error free NZ midfield backs on display this round.

14. I really like what Julian Savea (Hurricanes) bought to the field on Saturday night. He got the ball in hand often, making metres consistently and his error rate, often an Achilles heel, was negligible. Not a flashy performance by any stretch, but one of good substance.

15. Michael Collins (Blues) was required to do a lot of work at the back on the Highveld and he did it really well. Plenty of carries (15) resulting in 124 good metres, including two nice line breaks, and generally chimed in nice on attack and was in good position on defence.

Selection criteria: Must play for a NZ franchise but does not have to be eligible for All Blacks

Nigel Yalden is Rugby Editor for Radio Sport and Newstalk ZB