Highlanders beat Hurricanes to go second

The Hurricanes' Jimmy Gopperth is collared by the Highlanders' James Ryan tonight. Picture / Fotopress

The Highlanders beat the Hurricanes 26-16 in their Super 12 clash in Wellington tonight.


The visitors set a furious pace from the opening minute, launching attacks on both sides of the field before putting winger Glen Horton over for a try in the third minute.


Another try in the 13th minute further rattled the Hurricanes, giving the southerners a 14-6 halftime lead.


The Highlanders loosened their grip on the game in the second half, but were defensively sound enough to keep the Hurricanes out.


They scrummed well, retained territory advantage and managed to keep their cool.

Hurricanes winger Ma'a Nonu gave his team a sniff of victory after flying down the touchline for a brilliant individual try in the 57th minute, and Jimmy Gopperth's conversion closed the gap to one point -- 17-16.

But it was short-lived as the Highlanders responded with a Nick Evans penalty only a couple of minutes later.

A careless late charge by Nonu with only nine minutes to go gave the Highlanders another penalty which was slotted by Nick Evans, putting the visitors ahead 23-16 and relieving the pressure further.

The home team were unable to break through the gutsy Highlanders defence in the dying minutes, and an opportune dropped goal by Evans put the result beyond doubt at 26-16.

The Hurricanes had the odd scoring opportunity, but were let down by handling errors in front of a Westpac Stadium crowd of about 30,000 on a clear and still night.

The backs appeared to be disorganised for much of the game, and All Blacks Conrad Smith and captain Tana Umaga had uncharacteristically quiet games.

Having been so unfancied at the start of the season, the Highlanders jumped into second place on the leaderboard behind the Waratahs but there were other matches to be played at the weekend.

Highlanders 26 (Glen Horton, Josh Blackie tries; Ben Blair 2 con, Nick Evans 3 pen, 1 dropped goal)
Hurricanes 16 (Ma'a Nonu try; Jimmy Gopperth 3pen, 1con)
Halftime 14-6

- NZPA