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The Roar

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Ball always bounced the Highlanders’ way

6th July, 2015
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Will we see the 2015 grand final again in 2016? (AFP PHOTO / Anthony Phelps)
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6th July, 2015
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About the best compliment I can give this year’s Super Rugby Final is that I hit the blue button on my Foxtel IQ box to ‘keep’ the recording within minutes of full time. And I watched it again straight afterwards, too.

The Hurricanes and Highlanders played out one of the games of the season in the final, in front of another full house at the ‘Cake Tin’ in Wellington, with the southerners crowned Champions after a 21-14 win.

It was a convincing win, too. In every aspect of the match, they were just better than the Hurricanes, which was why I took issue with the ‘Highlanders steal Super Rugby Final win‘ headline we ran on the site following the game.

It was hardly stolen, and nor was it the “massive upset” as another of our reports trumpeted. It was well deserved, and well earned.

But I will certainly say the Highlanders enjoyed the bounce of the ball throughout the game.

And that’s not at all to suggest they were undeserving winners in any way, or the benefactors of poor refereeing, or anything like that; that’s far from the case.

(And credit to Jaco Peyper, while we’re on that topic. The game was allowed to reach the dizzy heights and outrageous pace it did because of his handling and ‘feel’ for the game. A superb performance.)

Ardie Savea being ruled out before kickoff was the Highlanders’ first stroke of luck. There was enough doubt around the outstanding flanker to bracket Callum Gibbons on the teamsheet, and ultimately, the Hurricanes were forced into the decision they wouldn’t have made easily.

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Gibbons is a very different player to Savea. His defence is and was very good, and he was a handful over the ball, too. But he’s just not Ardie Savea, and that would’ve forced an adjustment. And that’s not the reason the ‘Canes lost either; the truth is, there just aren’t too many Ardie Saveas out there, the Hurricanes certainly missed theirs.

From then on, whenever they needed them to, things just went the Highlanders’ way. Passes would stick; covering defence would arrive. Someone was always in the right place at the right time.

There might not be a better example than the 10 minutes between the 60th and 70th minutes, where three little things prompted scribbled additions to the notebook.

First was Julian Savea dropping the ball with the try line beckoning. The Hurricanes has managed to create a three-on-two overlap, and both Highlanders defenders had been drawn in by the pass. More often than not, Savea catches that pass – even though it went behind him – yet, in this occasion when his team needed him to, he spilt it. The Canes were down 18-11 at the time, and even if Beauden Barrett couldn’t have converted, a two-point ball game would’ve changed everything.

Not long after that, Barrett made a half-break from a scrum well inside the Highlanders half, and as he was finally reined in by defence and needed a runner off his hip, Conrad Smith cut to the wrong side.

The third moment was another Hurricanes break down the left wing, in which TJ Perenara played a major role, and somehow Highlanders fullback Ben Smith emerged with the ball from traffic, which included at least three Hurricanes players.

The Savea moment was in the highlights reels, but to my eyes, the other two were just as big. They were little moments that could have put the Hurricanes ahead, and who knows how the game plays out after opening that sliding door.

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In the middle of those three moments, a graphic popped up indicating the Hurricanes had 63 per cent of possession and 83 per cent of territory in the previous 10 minutes. It really felt like momentum was shifting for the first time in the game.

In the 71st minute – only a minute or two after Ben Smith’s possession heist – the Highlanders didn’t engage with a Hurricanes lineout drive, and won a penalty and easy exit from their 22. It was another bounce go their way, and the release they needed. They’d survived. The next nine minutes were essentially played in the Canes half.

Marty Banks nailed the match-sealing drop goal in the 78th minute, on his third attempt backing into the pocket. His two previous attempts were thwarted by rushing Hurricanes, the first rush of which Banks nearly re-thwarted himself by running to the line, only for Barrett and Savea to bring replacement prop Ross Geldenhuys down short.

Banks missed the semi in Sydney due to ongoing concussion effects. But what wasn’t widely reported was that the concussion was picked up at home during the week, quite possibly in a sleepwalking accident. He’s had quite the 10 days or so, has Marty Banks.

And he needed to step up, because when the momentum shift looked on, Lima Sopoaga – Super Rugby’s main drop-goal exponent in 2015 – looked like he was on one leg.

And Elliot Dixon, what a machine. In time, that try-scoring run of his will start just inside the 10-metre line, and then halfway, and by the time the 10-year reunion rolls around, he’ll have caught the pass standing on his own try line. And good luck to him. When you beat three defenders and carry another four over the line, you deserve embellishment rights.

But there was more to Dixon’s game. He played a major role in holding up one of the Hurricanes forwards over the line very early in the game, gave the last pass for Waisake Naholo’s try, made 16 tackles without missing one, and stole a lineout too. A thoroughly deserving player of the final, and with the best head tape in the competition.

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Aaron Smith was pretty handy too, but you expected that of him. In the biggest games, the best always shine, and the All Blacks scrumhalf was among the brightest. It’s frightening to think how good a player he could become.

It was a brilliant final, won by a brilliant side, who had to play out of their skin to beat the other brilliant side on their home turf. You genuinely can’t ask more of a decider.

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