No fairytale finish for Sopoaga
There was no fairytale finish for departing Highlanders first-five Lima Sopoaga.
Instead, the 27-year-old’s final season with the Highlanders before departing to England ended with a stinging 30-23 quarterfinal loss to the Waratahs at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium.
His last scoring act for the franchise he’s played for since 2011 was late in the first half, when he kicked a simple penalty to give the Highlanders a healthy 23-6 lead.
But, about an hour later, Sopoaga was close to tears as he came to grips with what the defeat meant.
‘‘I’ve loved my time here, I’ve given everything to this club and to the Dunedin city, and I know they’ve given everything back to me,’’ Sopoaga said.
‘‘I guess we probably played our best half of the year, and then we played our worst half of disappointing.’’
Sopoaga, who hails from Wellington, will stick around for the end-of-season formalities the coming week, before he takes up a lucrative two-year deal with English club Wasps.
He finished up six points behind Tony Brown (857) as the Dunedin-based franchise’s second all-time scorer in Super Rugby.
In addition to his 90 Super games, Sopoaga made 16 appearances for the All Blacks, having made a sparkling debut against the Springboks in Johannesburg in 2015.
It was the same year the pivot scored a franchise record 191 points for the Highlanders, and steered them to their only championship. the year. It’s really