The Otago Highlanders scored two tries from recovered chip kicks to beat South Africa's Cheetahs 21-17 in a Super 14 rugby match yesterday.
Lock Kane Thompson scored in the first half and winger Lucky Mulipola in the second as the Highlanders kept alive slim semi-final hopes with their fourth win in eight games.
Kicking became the predominant tactic for both teams, which lacked quality attacking players and whose backlines, from second phase and broken play, were often cluttered with tight forwards.
Thompson scored in the 14th minute when Highlanders flyhalf Nick Evans chipped ahead, recovered a fortunate bounce, linked with Jimmy Cowan and Viliame Waqaseduadua before handing the final pass to Thompson.
Mulipola's try came in the 46th minute, helping to seal the Highlanders win, when he chipped ahead and stayed in support when the ball came back to Otago to dart through a fractured defense.
Evans and Charlie Hore, who shared the goalkicking duties, jointly added three penalties and a conversion to conclude the Highlanders' scoring.
Winger Eddie Fredericks scored the first of the Cheetah's two tries, exploiting a Highlanders' turnover in the 28th minute and cutting Otago's half-time lead to 11-7. The Cheetahs attacked on the left flank through Juan Smith then moved the ball quickly right where a long pass from Meyer Bosman put Fredericks outside his marker.
Otago led 21-10 until the 73rd minute when flanker Lukas Floors strengthened the Cheetah's bid for their first win away from home with a try from a concerted forward drive. The Cheetahs unified forward pack marched the ball over the Highlanders line and Floors grounded with difficulty at the back of the maul.
Meyer Bosman kicked a conversion to accompany Willem de Waal's first half conversion and penalty.
The Cheetahs, trailing by four points, battered the Highlanders' line through the last seven minutes but their lack of creativity and a resolute defense prevented them taking the match. Halfback Jimmy Cowan was again the best and most determined of the Highlanders defenders, making two critical try-saving tackles.
"Our execution let us down," Cowan said. "We should have put them away. We got away to a great start but we let them back into the game. The only thing that kept them in it was our mistakes."
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