The Highlanders have seen off a late charge from Moana Pasifika for the 27-17 win in Christchurch.<\/p>\n
Facing the prospect of a second straight game going to Super Round, the hosts rallied several late advances to hold on for the victory.<\/p>\n
Both teams set the tempo for a physical opening quarter, Moana Pasifika performing Tau Moana as the Highlanders returned with Hautoa Kia Toa.<\/p>\n
The Highlanders had the better of the chances early, testing the visitors defence as they dominated field position.<\/p>\n
Moana Pasifika kept them out on several occasions before Semisi Paea\u2019s yellow card opened the space for Jonah Lowe to score the opener.<\/p>\n
Tana Umaga\u2019s side weren\u2019t fazed by the yellow card, with Israel Leota scoring one of the tries of the year.<\/p>\n
The Brisbane-bred product flew high and took a spectacular catch flying over Xavier Tito-Harris for the try in the corner off William Havili\u2019s kick, who was moved to fly-half after Patrick Pellegrini\u2019s sickening KO.<\/p>\n
Moana Pasifika would soon have the lead before the break when ex-Rebel Glen Vaihu swan dived over, taking advantage of the space left after Lowe was yellow carded for a high shot.<\/p>\n
This gave the visitors a 10-7 lead at half-time, with the Highlanders quick to level the scores after the break with a penalty.<\/p>\n
The hosts rode the confidence from here, with tries to Angus Ta\u2019avao and Adam Lennox giving them a 24-10 lead.<\/p>\n
Lennox was one of several players playing out of position as the casualty ward grew, with the scrum half latching onto a kick and running away for what would be the deciding try.<\/p>\n
Moana Pasifika gave themselves a shot at sending the game to Super Point after Augustine Palu somersaulted over the line for a try with 15 minutes to go.<\/p>\n
They created several half breaks and chances but never found themselves in a position for the killer blow as the Highlanders survived.<\/p>\n
A bloody Cameron Millar denied Moana Pasifika the bonus point with a late penalty goal, keeping themselves in touch with the top six.<\/p>\n
Highlanders\u00a027\u00a0(Tries: Lowe, Lennox, Ta’avao; Cons: Millar 3; Pens: Millar 2)\u00a0def Moana Pasifika 17\u00a0(Tries: Leota, Vaihu, Pulu; Cons: Havili)<\/p>\n
Teams<\/p>\n
Highlanders:\u00a015 Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens, 14 Jonah Lowe, 13 Tanielu Tele\u2019a, 12 Timoci Tavatavanawai (co-captain), 11 Xavier Tito-Harris, 10 Cameron Millar, 9 Adam Lennox, 8 Nikora Broughton, 7 Veveni Lasaqa, 6 Oliver Haig, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Mitch Dunshea, 3 Saula Ma\u2019u, 2 Soane Vikena, 1 Ethan de Groot (co-captain)
\n\tReplacements:\u00a016 Jack Taylor, 17 Josh Bartlett, 18 Angus Ta\u2019avao, 19 Te Kamaka Howden, 20 Hugh Renton, 21 Lucas Casey, 22 Folau Fakatava, 23 Taine Robinson<\/p>\n
Moana Pasifika:\u00a015 William Havili, 14 Tuna Tuitama, 13 Solomon Alaimalo, 12 Tevita Latu, 11 Glen Vaihu, 10 Patrick Pellegrini, 9 Jonathan Tamateine, 8 Semisi Tupou Ta\u2019eiloa, 7 Semisi Paea, 6 Miracle Faiilagi (captain), 5 Jimmy Tupou, 4 Allan Craig, 3 Chris Apoua, 2 Millennium Sanerivi, 1 Abraham Pole
\n\tReplacements:\u00a016 Mamoru Harada, 17 Malakai Hala-Ngatai, 18 Paula Latu, 19 Tom Savage, 20 Ola Tauelangi, 21 Augustine Palu, 22 Lalomilo Lalomilo, 23 Israel Leota<\/p>\n
Referee:\u00a0Todd Petrie
\n\tAssistant referees:\u00a0Angus Mabey, Marcus Playle
\n\tTMO:\u00a0Richard Kelly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Highlanders have seen off a late charge from Moana Pasifika for the 27-17 win in Christchurch. Facing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-631372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}