Highlanders show their brave hearts
Underfire and with their backs to the wall for much of the week, the Highlanders have pulled off the upset of the season.
In fact, their 33-12 win against the reigning champion Crusaders in Christchurch last must go down as one of their most memorable scalps of all time.
Head coach Tony Brown somehow got his troops to more than front on the back of a pig of a week, one in which he stood down six players for breaching team protocol.
It’s fair to say the group who were forced to stay home in Dunedin might struggle to get back into the side on the evidence of their feat, just the Highlanders’ 12th win against the Crusaders since 1996.
Practically nobody outside of their group gave them a chance of snapping a seven-match losing run against their northern neighbours this week, not after the week they’d had.
But their remarkale upset has both lit a fuse under their struggling campaign, lifting them off the bottom of the ladder, and rocked the Super Rugby Aotearoa competition many thought the Crusaders were running away with.
The Highlanders never trailed, kicking on from a 16-0 lead after half an hour, and a 16-7 lead at the split.
All 13,677 fans at Orangetheory Stadium waited for the Crusaders to flick a switch, as they’re renowned for doing, but the rally never eventuated.
Rather, Highlanders centre Michael Collins and wing Connor Garden-Bachop punished Crusaders’ mistakes to blow the scoreline out as the hosts were forced to chase the game.
Pivot Mitch Hunt was outstanding, as was fellow former Crusader Billy Harmon, with the pair combining for all 16 of the visitors’ halftime
points.
The Highlanders, who had not beaten the Crusaders since 2017, also defended with heart, and watching them celebrate a scrum penalty on their own goal line with 16 minutes to play summed up what the game meant to them.
The Crusaders simply never got into their groove, partly because their execution wasn’t up to scratch.
Some of the hands shown by punters in the stands were arguably better than their team’s in the first half, with Leicester Fainga’anuku and George Bridge both guilty of spilling ball.
Passes also missed their target, and penalties began to build. You sensed the Highlanders’ belief build with each blunder.
The Highlanders came out of the sheds with a siege-like mentality, carrying the ball with vigour, and smacking the Crusaders’ ball runners.
To be fair, they didn’t have to do a heck of a lot of defending in the first half as they enjoyed 62 per cent of possession, much of it in the Crusaders’ half.
They certainly learned their lesson from their round one loss to the Crusaders, when they turned down multiple shots at goals in favour of kicking to the corner.
Hunt slotted three of four penalty attempts, and converted flanker Harmon’s 25th minute try, to rock the hosts with a 16-0 lead with 31 minutes up.
However, just when it looked like they might shut out the Cruasders in the first half, hooker Codie Taylor steamed over for his fifth try of the season three minutes after the halftime hooter sounded.