REIGNING CHAMPS HIGHLANDERS found themselves battling an early 14-point deficit in this morning’s Super Rugby meeting with the Western Force in Dunedin.
The early concession was the Otago host’s own doing. Patrick Osborne attempted to offload out of contact on his own goal-line and fired the ball at the shins of Ben Smith, but even the brilliant All Black wasn’t able to gather and Dane Haylett-Petty collected an easy score.
Osborne more than made up for his error though. He crossed for a 17th minute score to halve the gap, finished the game off with an assist for Jason Emery, but perhaps most importantly, he sparked a terrific counter-attack try with a break from deep and a textbook offload to wing Matt Faddes. Dan Pryor completed the sweeping 27th minute move thanks to Aaron Smith.
The scrum-half was instrumental in swinging the game the Highlanders’ way after the break, dummying, breaking and grubbering ahead before Faddes touched down.
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