Hurricanes, Highlanders crush Aussie hopes to set up all-Kiwi Super Rugby final

Please click on the link for videos of post-match reaction following Saturday’s Super Rugby semi-finals.

Super Rugby will have a first-time champion this season after the Hurricanes and Highlanders won their semi-finals Saturday to set up the first all-New Zealand final in nearly a decade.

The Hurricanes will host the decider for the first time after beating the ACT Brumbies 29-9 in Wellington and will vie for their first Super Rugby title with the Highlanders, who scored five tries to oust the defending champions New South Wales Waratahs 35-17.

The Highlanders had never reached the final in the competition’s 19-year history. The Hurricanes got there the last time it featured two New Zealand teams, in 2006, when they lost to Christchurch-based Crusaders.

The make up of the final on July 4 rewards the two best teams in the competition this season. The tearaway Hurricanes finished clearly in first place at the end of the regular season and the Highlanders had the second-best points tally and record, but under Super Rugby’s arcane conference system second place and home advantage in Saturday’s semi-final was awarded to the Waratahs.

The Sydney-based outfit have one of the biggest home advantages in the competition but the Highlanders made light of that Saturday, scoring five tries to one – including a contentious penalty try and the 12th try of the season to new All Blacks winger Waisake Naholo.

The win was the Highlanders’ first against the Waratahs in Sydney in eight years and their first-ever in a play-off match in Australia. It ended the Waratahs’ one-year rule as champions and ensured the team that wins the final next weekend will be the ninth team to do so in Super Rugby history.

“We felt all year we had to work hard to get to the position we did tonight,” Waratahs captain Dave Dennis said. “But we got beaten by a better team.

“They played well, they kicked well tactically and put us under pressure and we put ourselves under a lot of pressure as well.”

There were five lead changes in the match in Sydney and the game may have pivoted around the penalty try the Highlanders were awarded in the 57th minute. South African referee Craig Joubert decided after watching several television replays that Highlanders winger Patrick Osborne had been prevented from scoring by an illegal, swinging arm tackle by Waratahs flanker Jacques Potgeiter.