Flyhalf Lima Sopoaga scored the first try of the season in an 11-point haul that helped the Highlanders to a surprise 14-9 win over the Hurricanes in the opening match of the expanded Super 15 rugby tournament.
Sopoaga managed only two penalties from six attempts, but his 20th-minute try — the only five-pointer of a substandard match — allowed underdogs the Highlanders an advantage, which endured throughout the match.
The Hurricanes were affected by a number of penalties and played the last 30 minutes with just 14 men after center Ma’a Nonu was sent off for a shoulder charge on his All Blacks teammate, Highlanders scrumhalf Jimmy Cowan.
Photo: Reuters
The Highlanders also ended the match with 14 men after replacement Braydon Mitchell was sin-binned in the 70th minute by Australian referee Stuart Dickinson, who handed out three yellow cards and a red card, along with 24 penalties.
Otago led 11-6 at halftime and a scrappy second spell saw only a penalty to each team as the Highlanders’ defense shut down Wellington’s backline, which included All Blacks Nonu, Conrad Smith, Aaron Cruden, Hosea Gear and Cory Jane.
“We should have closed it out after Ma’a was sent to the bin,” Highlanders captain Jamie McIntosh said. “We made hard work of it, but that’s character-building I suppose.”
Sopoaga, who turned 20 last week and was playing his first Super rugby match, landed a penalty after eight minutes.
Cruden replied four minutes later to level the match at 3-3, but Sopoaga’s try, set up by Cowan, gave the Highlanders a lead that survived the last three quarters of the match.
Cowan made a devastating break around the back of the lineout, picking out mismatches with the Hurricanes’ tight forwards, and Sopoaga was at his shoulder when he delivered the ball just short of the try-line.
Sopoaga missed a simple conversion, but added a penalty that completed the first-half scoring when Nonu received his first yellow card 10 minutes before the interval. Dickinson had already delivered a general warning over infringements at the breakdown and when Nonu grabbed the ball at a ruck, he was immediately sent to the sin-bin.
For his second yellow card, he was judged to have felled Cowan with a shoulder charge, although it appeared he was attempting to contest the ball in the air.
“We didn’t click too well. They lived off our mistakes and there were plenty of those,” Wellington captain Andrew Hore said.
REBELS 0, WARATAHS 43
AP, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
The New South Wales Waratahs gave a rough welcome to the Melbourne Rebels by ruining their Super 15 rugby debut yesterday.
It was the first time in 15 seasons that the Waratahs held an opposition scoreless.
The Rebels, led by former World Cup-winning Wallaby coach Rod Macqueen, had no answer to the relentless Waratahs’ attack in the seven-try win.
Kurtley Beale and Drew Mitchell scored two tries each, while Robert Horne, Tatafu Polota-Nau and Phil Waugh also dotted down.
Melbourne captain and former Wallaby skipper Stirling Mortlock, who had a solid game as he -continues his comeback from back surgery, said it was a painful lesson for the new team.
“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, New South Wales are a class side,” Mortlock said. “We were nowhere near where we needed to be tonight. In reality, we were outplayed everywhere. Our discipline let us down, our defense was slack as well.”
Melbourne kept the Waratahs scoreless for the first 24 minutes with plenty of possession, but suffered an early blow when playmaker James Hilgendorf injured his shoulder in a tackle by Polota-Nau and was replaced in the seventh minute by former England flyhalf Danny Cipriani.
The Waratahs, who have 14 former and current Test players in their 22, showed experience, class and patience. Wallabies fullback Beale and Test winger Mitchell scored in the first half for a 10-0 lead after 40 minutes.
Cipriani, who played seven Tests for England, had the opportunity to notch the Rebels’ first points in the 35th minute, but he sent a penalty kick wide.
As the Rebels ran on replacements, their combinations faltered and the Waratahs powered ahead, with Beale and Mitchell scoring their second tries, while center Horne and skipper Waugh also crossed.
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