The Highlanders opened their home season on Saturday night with a nail-biting 17-16 win over the Hurricanes, kicking a penalty with five minutes left to take the win.
The victory was hard fought, as is expected against other New Zealand sides. In what is fast becoming a feature of the competition this season, the clash was extremely quick and many players were almost out on their feet during the game.
Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph, who was happy to record a win, said the match was another hectic one, and that was going to continue when the side takes on the Lions next Saturday night under the roof.
‘‘Last year when they played us they came back from 20-odd points down within 40 minutes. It is going to be another quick game next week,'' Joseph said.
‘‘I would like to see the early-season stats, especially here in this stadium, where you get an extra five minutes of play. So when you get two teams together like the Lions and Highlanders, you are going to get some good, quick rugby.''
The Lions had an upset win on Saturday, tipping over the Chiefs 36-32 in Hamilton, and have won both of their games.
The Highlanders' victory against the Hurricanes on Saturday night was, as the score suggests, very hard fought.
Joseph said his side was under the pump because of hard work by the Hurricanes.
‘‘It is always nice to win. You've got to remember the Hurricanes are a classy outfit so to get some points on the board is fine but we made hard work of it, that is for sure.
‘‘We were put under a lot of pressure. The Hurricanes were very astute today. The kicking game, I felt we lost that. They surprised in the first half. They kicked the ball so much and they had done their homework. It was very hot out there, too, and the guys made a lot of handling errors.''
The side had been on the wrong end of the penalty count in its first-up game against the Blues but the same referee, Glen Jackson, did not seem to find as much fault with the Highlanders on Saturday night.
‘‘We did not give too many penalties away. That was a little positive for us.
‘‘I would not say I'm relieved and I would not say I'm happy. It is round two of a long season. There is a lot of football to play.''
The Highlanders twice went close in the second half but in the end got home with the Hayden Parker penalty in the dying stages.
‘‘We blew a couple of tries. We were composed enough to understand how to get back into the game and create a penalty. We have got some very experienced players in our team. You would like to think they could do that.
‘‘Players are seeing the right things, seeing space and having the confidence to pull the trigger, but the execution let us down.''
The only injury concern was second five-eighth Tei Walden, who was forced off the field midway through the first half with a head knock.
In other games over the weekend, the Force beat the Reds 22-6 in Brisbane. In the three games in South Africa, the Bulls beat the Rebels 45-25, the Stormers downed the Cheetahs 20-10 and the Sharks edged the Jaguars 19-15 .
● The Highlanders Bravehearts development team beat the Crusaders Knights 36-10 at Logan Park on Saturday.
