Highlanders far flung
THE Super Rugby playoff permutations are no longer as clear as mud, in New Zealand at least, after the Highlanders maintained their recent dominance over the Chiefs to enable the Hurricanes to secure home advantage for the finals series.
A dramatic New Zealand conference went down to the wire in Dunedin last night as the reigning champions secured a frenetic 25-15 victory that still couldn’t prevent Jamie Joseph’s travelweary squad from repacking their bags for the quarterfinals.
However, the Highlanders’ sixth consecutive win over the Chiefs mean they finish second in the conference and fifth overall only have to venture as far as Australia; the Chiefs drop to sixth and face an arduous journey to Cape Town, and the Stormers.
A 73rd minute try to Lima Sopoaga – after Matt Faddes was initially ruled to have knocked on – sealed the victory and sent raptures through Forsyth Barr Stadium.
The competition’s overall standings will only be confirmed after the Lions play the Jaguares in Buenos Aires this morning (NZT) and with the South Africans fielding a second-string team the Hurricanes could have even more cause for celebration with the potential to host the August 6 final.
The signs were ominous early after Wratt ruled out two tries inside the opening 22 minutes - he decided No 8 Luke Whitelock had not conclusively grounded the ball after being propelled to the line by the uprights and then Malakai Fekitoa obstructed Aaron Cruden before Waisake Naholo charged between the posts.
Undeterred by those setbacks, the Highlanders finally cracked a resolute - if occasionally borderline - defensive screen on the half hour when Naholo’s produced an acrobatic touch down in the right hand corner.
Sopoaga could not land the difficult conversion and although the Highlanders promptly swept out of their own territory, they were still trailed 7-5 at the break despite spending 9min 39sec inside the Chiefs 22-metre line.
McKenzie and Sopoaga traded penalties after the resumption before the yellow carding of Tom Sanders for a lifting tackle on Ben Smith in the 54th minute provided the Highlanders with a numerical advantage to exploit, which they successfully achieved with an exceptional try soon after the blindside flanker departed.
Matt Faddes and halftime replacement Dan Pryor handled twice before the impressive flanker surged over untouched to produce an eight-point lead for the hosts.
The Chiefs avoided further penalty without Sanders and regrouped with a full complement GETTY IMAGES when replacement flanker Lachlan Boshier dived over after a 12-phase build-up to trim the deficit to three with 13 minutes remaining. Highlanders 25 (Waisake Naholo, Dan Pryor, Lima Sopoaga tries; Lima Sopoaga 2 pen, 2 con) Chiefs 15 (Toni Pulu, Lachlan Boshier tries; Damien McKenzie pen, con). 5-7.