How underdogs bit back

JOHN MITCHELL, on the Vodacom Rugby Portal, looks back at the Super Rugby final and the lessons learned from the Highlanders' win.

I said the Hurricanes would win the fifth all-New Zealand Super Rugby final at Westpac Stadium comfortably because I believed they were superior to the Highlanders in all areas of the game. However, what I failed to take into account was how a final can help motivate an underdog.

Well done to first-time champions, the Highlanders, on the will they showed. They proved to no one but themselves that ordinary men working together are capable of achieving extraordinary feats.

Read the rest of Mitchell's column

Photo: Phil Walter/Getty Images