Highlanders stay perfect
The Highlands maintained their 100 per cent start to the Super 15 campaign with a 35-28 victory over the Bulls.
Last Updated: 05/03/11 7:44pm
The Highlands maintained their 100 per cent start to the Super 15 campaign with an entertaining 35-28 victory over the Bulls in Pretoria.
Wing Kade Poki ran in a brace of tries adding to scores from Adam Thomson and Josh Bekhuis, while fly-halves Robbie Robinson (six points) and Tony Brown (nine) also played their part to stun Loftus Versveld.
It meant three wins from three by the perennial Super Rugby strugglers and it also ended a run of 20 successive home wins for the 2009 and 2010 winners.
The visitors were undaunted from the first whistle and made a flying start to the game when Thomson went over on the right after six minutes.
Errors
Robinson missed the conversion and from the subsequent Bulls attack the New Zealanders were penalised for coming in from the side of a ruck.
Morne Steyn made full use by landing his side's first points of the evening, but Robinson took the lead back to five when the home side were guilty of not rolling away from the tackle.
The confidence from the Highlanders was there for everyone to see and had a positive effect on their game as their forwards matched the defending champions toe to toe up front.
They continued to have the better possession, but any errors in their half were duly punished by Steyn - the South Africa fly-half landing another kick on the half-hour mark to cut the gap back to two.
However, the visitors kept their noses in front with Robinson landing another penalty after Danie Rossouw was caught offside.
And moments before half-time Deon Stegmann was sent to the sin bin - a result of repeated warnings for constant infringement at the ruck by referee Stuart Dickinson.
Robinson, though, fluffed his kick this time with the deficit just five heading into the break.
Straight after the restart, the visitors capitalised fully on their man advantage when a strong attacking wave led to Bekhuis going over.
Replacement fly-half Brown added the conversion.
Consolation
The pressure continued to come from the bullish Highlanders and they again scored moments later when Poki was played in by a neat inside pass from Jimmy Cowan - Brown again converting.
With just 23 minutes remaining, a nine-point deficit and a knock to their confidence, the Bulls looked like they were out of it, but replacement Flip van der Merwe kick-started a potential fight-back when he went over after a quickly taken penalty.
Steyn ensured it was a complete seven-pointer, while at the other end Brown did his utmost to jolt the progress by adding another penalty to silence the home crowd.
Fourie du Preez then went over with 11 minutes to play - Steyn showing rare inaccuracy with his kick.
Poki then ended any hope of a Bulls win when he went over for a converted second try.
Seven minutes from time, Alando Soakai was yellow carded but his short-term dismissal came too late for any further twist.
Despite Bjorn Basson scoring a late consolation, the New Zealanders held on for a shock win.
