Flanker Elliott Dixon scored one try and provided the last pass in another by winger Waisake Naholo as the Highlanders shocked the Hurricanes 21-14 in yesterday’s final to win their first Super Rugby title.
Dixon carried four defenders over the line for a 39th-minute try that lifted the Highlanders to a 13-5 lead at halftime, then handed off to Naholo for his 13th try of the season in the sixth minute of the second half.
Those tries boosted the Highlanders to an 18-8 lead and set them on course to their maiden championship in only their second Super Rugby final, their first since 1999.
Photo: AFP
The Hurricanes entered the match as favorites after finishing the regular season in first place, but faltered in their second final.
Uncapped All Blacks flyhalf Lima Sopoaga outplayed his established international counterpart Beauden Barrett in one of the game’s key contests. Sopoaga kicked a conversion and two penalties in the first half to lift his tally for the season close to 190 points, while Barrett missed his first three shots at goal before kicking three penalties in the second half to spark a Hurricanes rally.
The 23-year-old Sopoaga also implemented an accurate tactical kicking game before being forced from the field with a calf injury late in the second half. His replacement, utility back Marty Banks, then kicked a drop-goal in the 77th minute to make the gap seven points.
Photo: AP
Highlanders co-captain Nasi Manu, who played the match with one eye closed by a previous injury, beamed as he held the championship trophy aloft.
“I’m just so proud of the boys,” Manu said. “We’ve played well as a team all season and what a way to end it.”
A capacity crowd of 35,400 packed the Wellington Regional Stadium, with most hoping to see the Wellington-based Hurricanes conclude a 19-year hunt for their first Super Rugby title.
This year, when they finished atop the table with 14 wins from 16 games in their best season, the Hurricanes seemed more likely than ever to end their title drought.
However, the Highlanders were more organized and composed throughout the final, leading from the fourth minute when Sopoaga landed his first penalty. The Hurricanes fell away from the game plan that had served them so well all season and found themselves disconcerted, inhibited by the relentlessly vigorous Highlanders’ defense.
The match was meant to be a victorious send-off for at least six of the Hurricanes’ leading players who are not returning next season, among them captain Conrad Smith, midfield partner Ma’a Nonu, lock Jeremy Thrush and prop Ben Franks. Instead, it became a triumph for the Highlanders, who started the season as one of the least-fancied teams in the competition and blazed a brilliant trail to the final.
“I don’t know what to say,” said Smith, who played his last game in a 12-year career with the Hurricanes. “It’s finals footy and there are some gutted men on our side.”
After achieving their best-ever regular season record to finish second only to the Hurricanes on points, the Highlanders won a home quarter-final, then traveled to Sydney to defeat defending champions the New South Wales Waratahs in the semi-finals.
They were given little chance of upsetting the Hurricanes, but they seized an early lead through Sopoaga, then never released their hold on the match.
Sopoaga kicked a second penalty to give the Highlanders a 6-0 lead after 27 minutes before the Hurricanes struck back with a try to Nonu four minutes before halftime. From an attacking scrum, backrower Victor Vito, winger Julian Savea and flanker Brad Shields carried the ball before the play was switched to the short side, where Nonu scored close to the corner flag.
The Highlanders immediately hit back with a try to man of the match Dixon. Taking a pass from scrumhalf Aaron Smith, Dixon waded through thick defense to touch down for a try, converted by Sopoaga.
The Hurricanes cut into the lead with Barrett’s first penalty immediately after halftime, but the Highlanders made the game safe with Naholo’s try in the 46th minute. The Highlanders probed the Hurricanes’ defense on both sides before moving the ball to the right and Dixon handed off to Naholo.
Aaron Smith said they always had faith in themselves.
“No one believed in us and I said to the boys: ‘Earn the right to be called champions.’ And we did it,” Smith said. “We’re just down south being humble and doing our thing. We’ve done it. We’ve proved everyone wrong.”
Conrad Smith said they had no excuses.
“We met a Highlanders side that played out of their skin. I take my hat off to them, they deserve to be victorious,” he said.
Additional reporting by AFP
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