Highlanders edge Kiwi scrap
13 May 2011
JON CARDINELLI reports on the Highlanders’ 13-6 win against the Hurricanes in a rain-affected game in Invercargill.
Both teams went into this clash with a premeditated approach that didn’t suit the conditions. Another shocking day in New Zealand made for difficult handing and thus limited the pace of the game, but that didn’t stop the Highlanders and Hurricanes from trying to attack from deep. With the pitch saturated and the ball resembling a bar of soap, it was tantamount to rugby suicide.
The Highlanders were the first to switch tactics after both teams had botched a series of scoring opportunities. The high bomb caused problems for the Hurricanes’ back three, who proceeded to spill the ball and concede metres when the advancing Highlanders swooped on possession.
It was an inspired touch by Jimmy Cowan and an important finish by Ben Smith that saw the Highlanders earning some reward for their first-half dominance. Cowan popped a perfectly weighted kick over the ruck for Smith to chase. A further Hurricanes transgression allowed Lima Sopoaga to nail a penalty and stretch the hosts’ lead to seven.
Handling mistakes in the shape of knock-ons and wayward lineout feeds continued into the second stanza, but the Highlanders got it right by playing the game deep in Hurricanes territory. Sopoaga kicked a difficult three-pointer to extend the advantage, and given the context of the match as well as the conditions, it was a formidable lead.
The Hurricanes by contrast tried to force the linebreak, and didn’t kick as accurately as their opponents. So competitive at the breakdown in the first half, they were outplayed by the hungrier Highlanders in the second.
They turned down a kickable penalty in the 73rd minute when they were only seven points adrift, and were made to regret it. The Highlanders produced a terrific defensive effort from point blank range, and subsequently forced the turnover.
During this period of play, Highlanders wing Kade Poki stuck a hand in the path of a Hurricanes pass, an act that killed the visitors’ attack when they had men to spare out wide. Referee Vinny Munro didn’t view the knock-on as cynical, and not for the first time in the game, the Hurricanes were denied a try.
They had one final crack at the line, but it was to no avail. Poor Hurricanes composure and gritty Highlanders defence combined to give the hosts a scrappy but valuable win.
197 Comments
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13 May 2011, 11:45 am
@poppa69(poppa69)-133: And you didn’t joke about the French who apparently “did not contribute”… With your need to generalise about French so called cowardice, I was highlighting the comparative “contributions”…. I don’t see any point in your “joke” about AIDS though…. Nice, have a laugh about millions… Yes, MILLIONS of people who have died due to HIV/AIDS…
Here is how they die: Think of someone dying of cancer… In pain… But add truly wasting away… Where someone will lose 50% of their bodyweight… They eventually also can’t hold anything down… If they have any scratches or sores, they grow and possibly turn septic… They take a multiple of different pills and tablets… as a result they are continually nauseous and shitthemselves continually…. These are some of the symptoms… I can carry on.
There is no cure and many people in Africa are infected by the worst strain, do not have access to various therapies available in developed countries and have no hope of prolonging their lives in the same way as those who contract HIV in the First World….
… and yes, there is the tragedy of AIDS orphans…
And yet here you are still going with ***-for-tat about some silly war argument where you were plainly just as culpable in your complicit insults about another nation…
Sick and bitter I tell you… AIDS is no joke.
13 May 2011, 11:45 am
Jumped 2 places on the log though.
13 May 2011, 11:46 am
@poppa69(poppa69)-145:
fark its going to get even more boring around here now they aren’t going to let that one go in a hurry
13 May 2011, 11:49 am
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-151:
you are a d ick
13 May 2011, 11:49 am
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-132: UK-wealth… You presume much. My wealth was only partly found in the UK… And no, I don’t live in Hammersmith…
13 May 2011, 11:50 am
@NZINCHINA(NZINCHINA)-154: yoh thats heavy.
13 May 2011, 11:53 am
@Sasuke(Sasuke)-156:
he’ll be writing some witty reply as we speak
13 May 2011, 11:54 am
and if any of youse ladies like to surf
well just up the road from the road from the Catlins is 1 or 2 of the best reef breaks you’ll ever experience.
bring your wettie tho
or 2
13 May 2011, 11:55 am
bladdy canes………..
let me down week in and week out.
so much of talent…
so little of results
13 May 2011, 11:55 am
Thats me for the day here… Outtahere… I actually feel sick.
Kiwis, anytime you want HG outtahere just make a joke about AIDS…
13 May 2011, 11:57 am
youve actually found a moral compass HG, how very farkin unusual… no mention of your jokes about my heritage huh? sweeping that one under the rug are we?
and for your information,Ive seen first hand the devastating effects of the disease..
I also have issued an apology…
now, you can continue hating me for all I care…
13 May 2011, 11:58 am
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-158:
haha you’re on a roll now panty.
best reef breaks????
ever heard of elands, jbay, tamarin bay?
next you’ll be telling us how hot the ladies are 8)
13 May 2011, 11:59 am
@NZINCHINA(NZINCHINA)-143:
when I was back last year, I landed in Auckland where a mate picked me up to lunch from the airport. Big gig at Soul bar, in the Viaduct. Opening Day of the Bluff season, it was all laid on….’NZ Oyster Champion’ was opening them for 150 guests, bathed in sunshine, all laid on by sponsors
I hadnt had a fresh Bluff in 10+ years
I must have polished off 3doz, easily
Heaven
13 May 2011, 12:01 pm
Another “shocking day in NZ”? It was a rainy day in Invercargill — the southernmost city on earth.
It’s like reporting from a rainy Cape Town and saying “another rainy day in SA”. Or reporting from Durban saying “another hot sweaty humid subtropical day in SA”
NZ is almost 2000kms long. Invercargill is right on the southernmost tip.
13 May 2011, 12:01 pm
@charo(charo)-162:
yes, Ive heard of them.
but this song isnt about you, Charo.
is anywhere else on this Planet of ours allowed to have ‘great reef breaks’ too, or do you have to have ALL of them ?
13 May 2011, 12:03 pm
let’s move on all.
13 May 2011, 12:04 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-148:
the less oxygen he gets the better
13 May 2011, 12:08 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-155:
Boy George
we know you live in Barnes.
and that “I” live just over the water “in a council flat in Hammersmith”.
Because, like the narcissist that you are, you look down your nose at everyone.
simple Ques – have you been a k’nob all your life or just since you turned up here ?
13 May 2011, 12:09 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-163:
nice, very hard to beat when fresh like that
13 May 2011, 12:14 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-165:
cool your jets big boy.
of course you guys have nice waves……
just never heard of people flying across the world to surf them?
13 May 2011, 12:21 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-145: Thanks
In response to the second part of your message: no it is not funny. Placing in the right context with appropriate sensitivity is all important, regardless.
13 May 2011, 12:44 pm
@charo(charo)-170:
it was on the back of RWC in Invercargill, if youd bothered to read before opening your oversized piehole
13 May 2011, 12:54 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-172:
Poor Charo.
That’s a harsh start to the day in Ghana.
13 May 2011, 13:59 pm
@gunther(gunther)-173:
I suspect he’s a bit more thick-skinned than that
13 May 2011, 14:48 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-168: Yes, whatever you say, “I”…
13 May 2011, 14:53 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-161: Wind your neck in Pooper… You made yourself look like an idiot… again.
Of couse I don’t “hate” you… On the contrary you are like an online stressball to me… I squeeze and you react like soft malleable gel…
You do me a service in your own unique way and I thank you
13 May 2011, 14:59 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-176: if i was poppa’s therapist i would be moering you by now! after he’s had such breakthrough getting over the trauma Kobus Kitty & Whatever put him through, you come around & exarcebate the neurosis.
cease & desist!
13 May 2011, 15:07 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-177:
poppa’s poor therapist took (very) early retirement.
poops looks up his symptoms on wiki and self-medicates.
you are right though, this abuse has got to stop
13 May 2011, 15:07 pm
what is happening here?
13 May 2011, 15:08 pm
@gunther(gunther)-173:
poor old panty……
can’t seem to keep to the normal sarcastic retorts when responding to charo?
8)
13 May 2011, 21:41 pm
@charo(charo)-170: The world junior womens’ surf championship took place at Raglan, on the Waikato coast about 150km south of Auckland, in February this year. (Just because you haven’t heard of it doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.) And the Catlins break is remote and is seriously big-wave — Dungeons and Outer Kom scale.
13 May 2011, 23:07 pm
@charo(charo)-180:
fish with that chip ?
14 May 2011, 00:18 am
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-181:
yes, we were lucky enough to see the tv broadcast of it.
please do not confuse outer kom or dungeons with real quality surf breaks – have surfed outers at max size and it’s a take off, drop, turn and duck for your life 8)
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-182:
panty, the only sport i have achieved (moderately) in is surfing.
amateur provincial level.
so when you spout froth about these hot reef breaks, excuse me for being a tad ascerbic – i follow the sport and still today search many websites for new breaks in remote locations like mali, patagonia, png, indonesia and, yes, new zealand.
maybe i interrupted your unintentional (?) promotion of your favourite part of your favourite part of the world?
i apologise. silly of me to think you might possibly be a tad objective in your presentation.
15 May 2011, 10:04 am
@charo(charo)-183:
k’nobster
all I pointed out was that there was a good surf break
that was all
I didnt say ‘my tube is bigger than yours’
I didnt say ‘your left footer looks small when its cold’
and I most certainly didnt suggest that SA doesnt have great surf beaches. There was no comparison, whatsoever. I would think that most countries that have a coastline as large as SAs would have 1 or 2 decent spots to catch a wave and Im sure even you dont know all the best ones in Aus either.
Have you even surfed Tunnel Beach in Dunedin ? Goat Island ? Pipeline near Karitane, which is a unique river break ? I have, many times.
is it OK for other web-surfers to learn of new spots to wave-surf or do you need to know and rank all of them first ?!
rather odd, Charo, that you even said I wasnt being “objective”. Arent you, actually, just being close-minded yourself and therefore showing a total lack of objectivity ?
15 May 2011, 10:42 am
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-184:
new zealand is less famous than cornwall for surfing.
that pretty much sums it up 8)
15 May 2011, 10:45 am
@charo(charo)-185:
have you ever surfed NZ ?
if not, shut that oversized piehole of yours.
15 May 2011, 11:21 am
NZ has some great surf spots, Raglan pumps in the winter a lot…
15 May 2011, 11:50 am
GYGT2
Raglan hosted the World Junior Champs last year. I rented a sweet gaff there for 10days for my family. Great surf, great competition. They come far and wide to surf Raglans goofy, atleast 60% if people renting there were foreign. It’s a cool town there now too, so different than when I grew up. Quite chic cafes, own FM radio on main street, the old tavern is a gastro pub with mega wine list. Maori culture also fits in seamlessly, we witnessed some local bros bless their fush’n'chups there in Maori before they ate on the pier, way cool. Land prices are now Aucklandesque. All because of the surf.
It’s just they’re still waiting for World Recognition from Charo first.
15 May 2011, 11:54 am
GYGT2
Raglan also had a leg of the NZ Rally on while I was there. Am not a spanhead myself, like the Greater Hamilton all seem to be, but it’s really is awesome spectacle seeing these cars flying around tight bends on loose metal roads. They set up viewing spots and people farms, all with gourmet food caravans and local made crafts etc. It’s smalltime
15 May 2011, 11:55 am
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-188: I think my trip in September may be a bit of a shock… been a while
15 May 2011, 11:55 am
“it’s smalltime small-town NZ but hosted by farmers and was alot of fun being surrounded by sheep”
fnnnaaarr
15 May 2011, 12:02 pm
GYGT2
well Hamilton itself will shock you, don’t get me wrong I’m not advocating the Tron as a Must Stop. but half of Horsham Downs/RiverRoad is now mega-gaffs and restaurants bars on the river.
But Raglan, still tiny and insignificant in CharoWorld, is well worth a visit. The kids loved the sand dunes and the estuaries around the harbour for sealife and we saw an Orca pod off Whale Bay, schweeeeet.
15 May 2011, 12:12 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-192: I have to go to Cambridge to see family… it seems I am going to be the celebrity in town as half the people I don’t remember want to see me apparently… possibly to ask if I am afraid of riding my Lion…
I’m not planning on doing anything in Hamilton itself, but am heading to Tauranga and Rotorua to show the wife…
15 May 2011, 12:16 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-192: Seems your feelings are hurt, oh well your name calling seems to expose you once again
15 May 2011, 12:22 pm
JL1
you would fail to ‘expose’ me if I was naked in the Sahara with Bin Ladens wives pulling my neon-lit caboose.
because you’re a lightweight
15 May 2011, 12:26 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-195: Don’t talk about Bin Laden… I mean, the man has been victimised enough for things the Bush’s did… let him RIP
15 May 2011, 12:36 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-196:
Dubya really only ever made Osamas job that much easier
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