The Chiefs have kept their minor premiership hopes alive with a 42-12 win over the Highlanders.<\/p>\n
In doing so, it all but ends the finals’ chances of the visitors, who were unable to capitalise on their strong start.<\/p>\n
The victory puts the Chiefs at the top of the ladder on 45 points alongside the Hurricanes, who still have to play the Blues on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Highlanders’ pain was only soured by a potential long-term injury to Caleb Tangitau, who went down to a non-contact knee injury after the siren and was carted from the field.<\/p>\n
Tanigtau was distraught as he instantly hit the deck while trying to beat a defender, and was taken from the field after the siren.<\/p>\n
The Highlanders fought for their finals hopes as they dominated early through their power scrum.<\/p>\n
Entering the game with 29 scrum penalties won this year, they added to this with back-to-back penalties as they turned down easy three-point opportunities.<\/p>\n
Their persistence paid off when Lucas Casey went from the back of yet another advantage to crash over, one of several strong carries for the young back-rower.<\/p>\n
But the Chiefs remained calm and hit straight back through number eight Wallace Sititi. The hosts punished them following a yellow card against Highlanders lock Tomas Lavanini.<\/p>\n
Lavanini was sent for ten after pulling back Sititi without the ball as he backed up a break from prop Ollie Norris.<\/p>\n
From here, the Chiefs went on a roll after lock Seuseu Naitoa Ah Kuoi got in on the fun after setting up Sititi, giving the hosts the lead.<\/p>\n
This was extended further when Damian McKenzie and Xavier Roe combined to put them on the Highlanders\u2019 goal-line, allowing the chance for Samisoni Taukei\u2019aho to add to his growing tally.<\/p>\n
With a 21-7 lead, the Chiefs hunted for a bonus point as Roe sliced the visitors open for an easy try from the base of the ruck.<\/p>\n
The visitors kept themselves in the contest as Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens hit straight back with a try in the corner.<\/p>\n
They enjoyed their fair share of territory but couldn\u2019t find a way through the hosts\u2019 rock-solid defence. It allowed the Chiefs to restore their bonus point hunt, with Brodie McAlister crashing over at the back of the maul.<\/p>\n
Kyren Taumoefolau put the icing on the win with a freakish offload as he was heading over the sidelines for Kyle Brown to score well past full-time.<\/p>\n
However, the Chiefs\u2019 hunt for top spot took a major blow late when Damian McKenzie was knocked out with 11 minutes to go.<\/p>\n
McKenzie was left motionless after an errant boot trying to take down Casey, who will rule him out of next week\u2019s clash with the Crusaders.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Highlanders\u2019 chance of making the top six is hanging by a thread with one game left in their season, facing the Hurricanes before their final round bye.<\/p>\n
Chiefs 42\u00a0(Tries: Sititi, Ah Kuoi, Taukei’aho, Brown, McAlister, Roe; Cons: McKenzie 4, Jacomb 2)\u00a0def Highlanders 12\u00a0(Tries: Casey,\u00a0Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens; Cons: Millar)<\/p>\n
Teams<\/p>\n
Chiefs:\u00a015 Damian McKenzie, 14 Liam Coombes-Fabling, 13 Kyle Brown, 12 Lalakai Foketi, 11 Kyren Taumoefolau, 10 Josh Jacomb, 9 Xavier Roe, 8 Wallace Sititi, 7 Luke Jacobson (captain), 6 Simon Parker, 5 Tupou Vaa\u2019i, 4 Seuseu Naitoa Ah Kuoi, 3 Siona Ahio, 2 Samisoni Taukei\u2019aho, 1 Ollie Norris
\n\tReplacements:\u00a016 Brodie McAlister, 17 Ben\u00e9t Kumeroa, 18 George Dyer, 19 Fiti Sa, 20 Samipeni Finau, 21 Cortez Ratima, 22 Daniel Rona, 23 Isaac Hutchinson<\/p>\n
Highlanders:\u00a015 Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens, 14 Caleb Tangitau, 13 Taniela Tele\u2019u, 12 Timoci Tavatavanawai (co-captain), 11 Jonah Lowe, 10 Cameron Millar, 9 Adam Lennox, 8 Nikora Broughton, 7 Lucas Casey, 6 Te Kamaka Howden, 5 Mitch Dunshea, 4 Tomas Lavanini, 3 Angus Ta\u2019avao, 2 Jack Taylor, 1 Ethan de Groot (co-captain)
\n\tReplacements:\u00a016 Henry Bell, 17 Daniel Lienert-Brown, 18 Saula Ma\u2019u, 19 Oliver Haig, 20 Sean Withy, 21 Veveni Lasaqa, 22 Folau Fakatava, 23 Taine Robinson<\/p>\n
Referee:\u00a0Nic Berry
\n\tAssistant referees:\u00a0Reuben Keane, Louis Trisley
\n\tTMO:\u00a0Brett Cronan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chiefs have kept their minor premiership hopes alive with a 42-12 win over the Highlanders. In doing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-430762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}