Former Otago and Highlanders captain Craig Newby was villain, then hero, in a pulsating Heineken Cup semifinal in Cardiff yesterday morning.
Newby played at blindside flanker for the Leicester Tigers team which beat the Cardiff Blues in a penalty kick shoot-out in a match some media have called "the mother of all games".
The match was tied 26-26 at full-time, after Cardiff scored two converted tries in the final 10 minutes to peg back Leicester.
Newby was sinbinned about halfway through the second half for a ruck indiscretion.
The match went to 20 minutes of extra time but the sides could still not be separated, and, with both teams having scored two tries, the match went to a penalty shoot-out, with kickers having to slot a goal from from the 22m line straight out in front of the posts.
Newby, who used to kick goals for Dunedin, his club side, knocked his shoot-out effort over with ease.
The former All Black was the seventh kicker from Leicester to have a shot, and the next kicker, Cardiff and Wales flanker Martyn Williams, failed to slot his.
Newby's fellow loose forward, former semi-professional football player Jordan Crane, then knocked over the winning kick.
Six New Zealanders played in the match: Ben Blair, Paul Tito and Xavier Rush (Cardiff) and Newby, Aaron Mauger and Scott Hamilton (Leicester).
Former Highlanders fullback Blair kicked a sideline conversion to tie the game up for Cardiff, with time almost up.
Leicester will meet Irish side Leinster in the final on May 23 at Murrayfield, in Edinburgh.
