Rugby: Highlanders thump Chiefs

Patrick Osborne scored his side's first try on a foggy night in Invercargill. Photo / Getty

Highlanders 36
Chiefs 9

On a night that hearkened back to the franchise's formative years, the Highlanders created a little slice of history and remained right in the hunt for another.

The Highlanders clinically dispatched an under-strength Chiefs on a nasty night in Invercargill, winning 10 games in the Super Rugby regular season for the first time and virtually sealing a playoff place.

With both teams battling for second spot in the New Zealand conference and, with it, the assurance of home advantage in the first week of the finals, the Highlanders proved totally deserving of that standing. The southern side thrived in typically-southern conditions, dominating the game up front and showing much more flourish out wide.

In a way it was a shame that a clash with such high stakes was somewhat spoilt by the schedule, leaving two of the competition's top attacks braving the Invercargill elements when, had circumstances allowed, they could have been safely ensconced under the Dunedin roof.

A pair of backlines littered with All Blacks suffered with a heavy track under foot and a slippery ball in hand, but the Highlanders made the best of a bad situation - perhaps finding the requisite fortitude deep in their DNA after spending numerous such nights outdoors in the good old days of Carisbrook.

They scored four impressive tries through a quartet of outstanding outside backs, reflective of a superior performance with ball in hand that blew away the opposition. The Highlanders largely played at the right end of the field, initially milking penalties from the notoriously ill-disciplined Chiefs defence before chancing their arm once they gained a foothold.

Their tries all had a feeling of inevitability, forcing the Chiefs to defend deep in their half and eventually wearing them down through sheer physical force. Patrick Osborne, Richard Buckman and Ben Smith all crossed in such fashion, taking advantage of a tiring set of tacklers to find space out wide.

The exception - as he so often is - was Waisake Naholo, scoring a brilliant solo effort that started within his half and saw the wing scythe through the defence with barely on hand laid on him.

Try as they might, the Chiefs failed to follow the hosts' formula, undoing any good spells of possession with errors in option-taking or execution. Shorn of several key men through injury, their attack was perhaps guilty of attempting to force its hand, left chasing the game and feeling continual scoreboard pressure through the accurate boot of Lima Sopoaga.

The visitors enjoyed one consolidated patch of possession before the break and would have taken a lead into halftime had the TMO spotted Damian McKenzie's downward pressure following brother Marty's grubber - prompting unwanted flashbacks for Dave Rennie after watching his side robbed by the replays during another key New Zealand conference encounter.

But robbed the Chiefs weren't, not on this occasion. They were outplayed to such an extent that the Highlanders will hold a great deal of confidence should the sides meet again come the playoffs. They may even have hope of hauling in the Hurricanes, with the first chance to chip away at the nine-point deficit coming next week in Napier.

Highlanders 36 (Osborne, Naholo, Buckman, Smith; Sopoaga 4 pens, 2 cons)
Chiefs 9 (McKenzie 3 pens)
HT: 11-3

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