The beaten Highlanders weren't exactly celebrating their playoff place. Photo / Getty
The beaten Highlanders weren't exactly celebrating their playoff place. Photo / Getty
Rebels 31 Highlanders 30
His side only "scraped into" the playoffs but Highlanders captain Aaron Smith has welcomed the daunting challenge they now face.
The Highlanders today became the eighth and final team to seal a Super Rugby playoff place - but only just.
Smith's side were edged 31-30 by the Rebels in Melbourne but earned the bonus point they needed to sneak ahead of the Force and into the post-season.
The loss meant the Highlanders finished in eighth with four wins from their 14 games, recording 23 competition points and a points differential of plus three, compared to the Force who also had 23 points, but a points differential of minus 117.
The southerners will this weekend travel to Eden Park to face the top-qualifying Blues, who enter the playoffs on a 13-game winning streak and will now encounter a team who finished 35 points below them on the competition ladder.
But Smith was unbowed by the task ahead and had a simple message when looking ahead to the quarter-final.
"Bring it on," the skipper told Stan Sport. "Our men should be bloody excited to go to Eden Park, play the best team and see what we can do.
"It's obviously bittersweet but we made it in. If you'd have said at the start of the season we'd make the playoffs, you'd take that.
"We scraped in, but we just have to put all our energy and focus into getting better for next week. We know we've got a big game up in Auckland but it's bloody exciting."
The beaten Highlanders weren't exactly celebrating their playoff place. Photo / Getty
The Blues might just think likewise. Having already locked up top spot, their dramatic triumph over the Waratahs on Saturday night broke the franchise win record and saw them finish six points clear of the Crusaders in second.
Scott Robertson's men will host the Reds - the same team they beat in Christchurch on Friday night - while the Chiefs' narrow victory over the Fijian Drua saw them finish third to set up a home clash against the Waratahs.
With the Chiefs barely hanging on in Fiji and the Highlanders entering the playoffs via the back door, the Hurricanes made it three Kiwi teams to stagger through after falling to the Force.
The Hurricanes - who finished fifth and now face a trip to Canberra to tackle the Brumbies - wouldn't have won many friends in the deep south as the Force temporarily pushed the Highlanders out of the top eight.
But Smith and his teammates managed to do the bare minimum at AAMI Park, blowing a 12-0 lead but surviving after falling behind for the final time in the 74th minute.
"We started so well but just let them back in it," Smith said. "This comp has shown that if you have lapses of judgment and don't quite nail the little things, teams can score.
"We're in total control of what we can do and some things we can clean up - everything comes from our defence. But we know what we're up against next week."
Quarter-finals
Friday, 7.05pm, Christchurch: Crusaders v Reds Saturday, 4.35pm, Hamilton: Chiefs v Waratahs Saturday, 7.05pm, Auckland: Blues v Highlanders Saturday, 9.45pm, Canberra: Brumbies v Hurricanes
