Highlanders seal dramatic victory

The Highlanders have sealed a dramatic 36-33 Super Rugby win over the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein, courtesy of a last minute penalty to Chris Noakes.

The visitors trailed 30-9 ten minutes into the second spell, before three tries in eight minutes returned the sides to level pegging by the 65th minute.

The sides than traded penalties before Cheetahs replacement first five Sias Ebersohn missed a potential game winner from right in front, allowing Noakes to slot a long range winner down the other end of the field moments later.

Highlanders captain Jamie Mackintosh says when things began going their way, they were hard to contain.

"Their narrow defence, we got round the outside them a few times and started to breach them and the momentum changed. Momentum in rugby's huge, it doesn't come down to skills or tactics or anything really, it's just if one team gets momentum and the Cheetahs had it for 20 minutes, we couldn't stop them."

Jimmy Cowan dotted down twice and Noakes added a try, three conversions and two penalties, to take the visitors into the lead for the first time.

Assistant coach Simon Culhane says it was a bizarre win.

"It was pretty surreal actually the way that we just hung in there."

He says they refused to give the game up as lost.

"They were starting to tire, obviously we were too but we felt if we continued to keep giving the ball some air and chase the game, the opportunities would come and we just needed to be good enough to take them when they did."

The win sees the Highlanders remain second in the New Zealand conference this weekend, regardless of how the Crusaders fare against the Waratahs this evening.

Photo: Photosport