Hurricanes edge sloppy Highlanders
The Hurricanes put the cat among the pigeons in the New Zealand conference when they edged the Highlanders 26-20 in a Super Rugby arm-wrestle in Dunedin on Saturday.
IThere was one of the great moments in Super Rugby five minutes from the end of this match – a moment of drama, that, doubtless, the 18 207 in Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium would rather not have had. The last 10 minutes of the match were tension charged.
There had been a time when it seemed that the Highlanders would easily repeat their victory over the Hurricanes in Wellington, but all of that was blown away at the death as the home side, beaten in Durban last weekend, lost in Dunedin this weekend.
The first half was 2 minutes 54 seconds old before the first stoppage – a high tackle by Chris King on Andre Taylor. This gave Beauden Barrett a chance to open the score after 3 minutes.
It was Barrett’s boot that kept the Hurricanes in touch and in the end provided the platform for victory when the Highlanders were scoring tries.
From a line-out the Highlanders went right, then left, then right again and flyhalf Chris Noakes beat four, including Taylor, to score a try which he converted. 7-3 after 14 minutes.
The Highlanders went on the pick-‘n-drive and then made a penalty into a five-metre line-out. From it they bashed, Andrew Hore, captain for the night, close twice, and then Adam Thomson was over near the posts. 14-3, and it seemed that the Highlanders were on the high road to victory, but a second penalty against King enabled Barrett to score again and then Tamati Ellison’s obstruction made it 14-9, the half-time score.
Early in the second half Ben Smith chipped and Taylor saved just short of his own line. The Highlanders counterattacked from a kick and Phil Burleigh raced 23 metres for the left corner where Taylor and TJ Perenara dived to force him out, according to the advice of the TMO. But Perenara was penalised for attacking Burleigh in touch and Noakes made it 17-9 after 49 minutes.
All the signs of a home victory were there.
But the Highlanders won the kick-off, went through phases and Faifili Levave burst over in the left corner though a slow-motion replay showed that Jason Eaton had been in touch earlier in the same movement. Barrett converted. 17-16 to the Hurricanes after 50 minutes.
One point behind, there was new life in the Hurricanes which the Highlanders sought to extinguish with close-quarter attack.
From a scrum Perenara broke wide and kicked ahead. Thomson tackled him late. 19-17 with 14 minutes to play. The stage was set, the drama obvious.
Victor Vito and Conrad Smith were penalised for being offside and from a difficult angle Mike Delany, on for Noakes, bisected the uprights. 20-19 with 10 minutes to play.
Jimmy Cowan was at scrumhalf, the same Cowan who had played such a large part in the Highlanders’ late victory over the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein. This time he made mistakes – costly mistakes.
He kicked into touch on the full and the Hurricanes went through many phases. The Highlanders won a turnover and Cowan kicked a ‘good old anywhere’ kick down to Corey Jane who started a counterattack. The Hurricanes went left and came back right. Julian Savea cut inside Tim Bateman, handed off King who went high for him, and then burst into full speed, swerving past Delany on a 45-metre run for the try which won the match.
The Highlanders had a penalty, Jason Rutledge tapped and Cowan knocked on. Just over a minute to play and the Hurricanes went on pick-‘n-drive but knocked on. Scrum, to the Highlanders. The siren went but Cowan put the ball in as skew as he could. Despite that the Hurricanes pushed over the Highlanders, got the ball back and kicked it out.
It was drama that the locals could have done without.
Man of the Match: TJ Perenara. The memory of his silly penalty was not enough to erase the memory of an immaculate service, great decision-making and brave defence.
The scorers:
For the Highlanders:
Tries: Noakes, Thomson
Cons: Noakes 2
Pens: Noakes, Delany
For the Hurricanes:
Tries: Levave, Savea
Cons: Barrett 2
Pens: Barrett 4
Teams:
Highlanders: 15 Ben Smith, 14 Siale Piutau, 13 Tamati Ellison, 12 Phil Burleigh, 11 Hosea Gear, 10 Chris Noakes, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Nasi Manu, 7 Adam Thomson, 6 Nick Crosswell, 5 Jarrad Hoeata, 4 Josh Bekhuis, 3 Ma’afu Fia, 2 Andrew Hore (captain), 1 Chris King.
Replacements: 16 Jason Rutledge, 17 Bronson Murray, 18 Culum Retallick, 19 Tim Boys, 20 Jimmy Cowan, 21 Mike Delany, 22 Kenny Lynn.
Hurricanes: 15 Andre Taylor, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith (captain), 12 Tim Bateman, 11 Julian Savea, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Victor Vito, 7 Karl Lowe, 6 Faifili Levave, 5 Jason Eaton, 4 Jeremy Thrush, 3 Ben May, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Reggie Goodes.
Replacements: 16 Motu Matu’u, 17 Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, 18 Brad Shields, 19 Jack Lam, 20 Chris Eaton, 21 Tusi Pisi, 22 Alapati Leiua.
Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Keith Brown (New Zealand), Matthew Muir (New Zealand)
TMO: Vinny Munro (New Zealand)
