It went a little downhill after that.
But they held on to beat the Waratahs 31-26 at Forsyth Barr Stadium on Saturday afternoon in front of 14,346 fans — and that is what counts.
Everything winger Caleb Tangitau touched turned to gold.
He could unblock the Strait of Hormuz, that fellow.
The scrum was humming.
Jona Nareki made a real go of his positional switch to centre until he got red-carded — more on that later.
It was just 40 minutes of beautiful rugby from the home team.
"I felt that we played probably our best rugby since I’ve been here, in that 40 minutes," Joseph said shortly after fulltime.
"Then, yellow cards put a bit of pressure on the team. The Waratahs have got some pretty flash backs there ... and they really came back at us."
The visitors trailed 28-7 at the break but roared back with three tries in the second half to give themselves a late chance.
"You sort of take your hat off to that. In the end, we just had to grit our teeth, really," Joseph said.
"Some real ticker. The boys found a way to win the game. That was really pleasing."
Cameron Miller sealed the win with a successful penalty in the last act of the game.
The Highlanders dominated the opening half.
It started with Nareki bringing down centre Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i in a bootlaces tackle.
His team-mates joined the ruck and shoved the Waratahs off the ball.
They piled on pressure and Tangitau used his speed to slip through half a gap and got a cracking inside ball to Jonah Lowe, who went over for the first of his two tries.
Tangitau was back in the action quickly.
Adam Lennox took a quick tap and made a strong run deep into the Waratahs’ 22.
Tangitau scooped the ball up from the ruck and brushed aside four would-be tacklers to score a try he had no right to.
Wonderful stuff. All was going well.
Timoci Tavatavanawai is a wine barrel you cut loose at the top of a hill and sit back to watch as it causes carnage.
He was having his usual impact, but picked up a yellow card for not staying on his feet.
Deemed cynical. Looked clean.
Joseph was not convinced it warranted a yellow card.
"In my mind, it wasn’t. Then the yellow card [Nareki got for making contact with the head] upgrade to a red card, it was hard to actually ... I don’t agree with that one either."
The Waratahs pounced once Tavatavanawai was removed from the frame. Andrew Kellaway scored out wide where the extra man would have been.
But he who could do no wrong — Tangitau — fielded a chip kick and put in a grubber which rolled into touch for a 50-22.
The Waratahs were pinned in the red zone and eventually Lowe went over with an athletic high dive into the corner.
Things got shaky in the second half.
Waratahs’ replacement prop Apolosi Ranawai tumbled over.
Nareki got binned.
The Highlanders’ performance had gone from wow to how — as in, how long can they hang on?
The visitors had two tries ruled out, but eventually rumbled over through Leafi Talataina, and then winger Sid Harvey charged over from 15m out on an angled run to set up a tense finish.
Super Rugby
The scores
Highlanders 31
(Jonah Lowe 2, Caleb Tangitau, Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens tries; Cameron Millar 4 con, pen)
Waratahs 26
(Andrew Kellaway, Apolosi Ranawai, Leafi Talataina, Sid Harvey tries; Sid Harvey 3 con)
Halftime: 28-7
