Highlanders claim maiden Super Rugby title with thrilling 21-14 win over Hurricanes

Flanker Elliot Dixon scored one try and delivered the crucial last pass in another by Waisake Naholo as the Highlanders shocked the Hurricanes 21-14 in Saturday’s Super Rugby final and win the southern hemisphere title for the first time.

Dixon carried four defenders over the try-line for his 39th-minute try to lift the Dunedin-based Highlanders to a 13-5 lead at the break, then handed off to Naholo for his 13th try of the season just six minutes after the restart.

Those tries boosted the Highlanders to an 18-8 lead and set them on course for their maiden championship in only the second Super Rugby final they have reached, the first coming in 1999.

The Hurricanes, with 12 All Blacks in the side compared to the Highlanders’ five, entered the match as firm favourites after finishing the regular season top of the ladder, but they faltered in their second appearance in a final.

New All Blacks fly-half Lima Sopoaga, 23, out-played his established international counterpart Beauden Barrett in one of the game’s key contests.

Sopoaga kicked a conversion and two penalties in the first half to lift his tally for the season near 190 points, while Barrett missed his first three shots at goal before kicking three penalties in the second half to spark a Hurricanes rally.