Highlanders edge out Chiefs to reach Super Rugby semi-finals
Last Updated: 20/06/15 6:32pm
The Highlanders have made it into the Super Rugby semi-finals after a 24-14 win over the Chiefs in Dunedin.
There were two tries from Waisake Naholo as well as 14 points from the boot of Lima Sopoaga as the Highlanders booked a semi-final place in a the southern hemisphere showpiece.
The Chiefs were kept in the game by fly-half Andrew Horrell, who kicked three first-half penalties to give his side the lead at the break, but a lone try in the second half from last year's World Player of the Year Brodie Retallick was not enough to steal a win away from home.
The Highlanders will now travel to Sydney to take on the Waratahs for a place in this year's final.
Both of Naholo's tries came from good play from livewire scrum-half Aaron Smith, who once again dictated proceedings from the base of the ruck, while the defensive effort from Malakai Fekitoa and Richard Buckman in the midfield ensured that the Chiefs' threatening weapons out wide were not as effective as their coaching staff would have hoped.
It was a game played on every inch of the Forsyth Barr stadium, with neither side showing any of the suffocation often suffered by teams in play-off rugby, and it was the Highlanders who were looking like the team to beat in the early exchanges. Horrell slotted a penalty in the seventh minute to cancel out an effort from Sopoaga, but the Chiefs pivot missed two further chances to pull away from their hosts.
The visitors then conceded the lead when a scrum on the half-way line gave Smith enough space to tear up the blindside. He drew and passed to Naholo but remained in support. Naholo offloaded to Smith in return who passed back to the winger for the opening try of the game, which Sopoaga failed to convert.
It was the Chiefs, though, who took a 9-8 lead into the break thanks to a pair of penalties from Horrell.
The second half started in frenetic fashion for the Highlanders, and they had a penalty advantage when Smith scampered around a ruck, drew two defenders and popped to Nadolo for his second of the night in the corner.
The conversion from Sopoaga came with barely three minutes on the board in the second period.
Sopoaga then added a penalty before Retallick hit back with a try, but a 65th-minute effort from the tee extended the Highlanders’ lead to seven points before a penalty in the final moments allowed the Highlanders fly-half to see the clock out with the final penalty kick of the match to make it 24-14 to the hosts and give them a place in the semi-finals.
The Highlanders were forced to wait until late on Saturday to discover their semi-final opponents, and after the Brumbies recorded a 39-19 thrashing of the Stormers it handed the Dunedin-based side a trip to Sydney to take on the Waratahs, while the Hurricanes host the Brumbies in the other semi-final.