Hurricanes playmaker Jordie Barrett drilled a sideline conversion to eliminate the Highlanders 7-5 in the quarter final at the Brisbane Tens yesterday.
Barrett made the clutch play moments after former Southern hooker Ricky Riccitelli had bar relled over in the corner with about 90sec remaining in the
game.
The Highlanders had led since hooker Adrian Smith dashed 20m to score midway through the first half in what was a scrappy encounter.
The inaugural title was won by the Chiefs, who claimed a 12-5 victory over the previously undbeaten Crusaders at Suncorp Stadium
last night.
The win has come at a huge cost for the Chiefs, who lost halfback Brad Weber (knee) and prop Mitchell Graham (broken leg) to serious injuries.
The injuries, which came after Vaea Fifita also suffered a suspected broken leg in the Hurricanes' semifinal loss to the Crusaders, show why New Zealand Rugby blocked top-line All Blacks from playing in the tournament.
Andrew Makalio opened the scoring for the Crusaders with a rolling maul try, giving his side a 5-0 lead. Luke Jacobson responded for the Chiefs just before halftime, with Taleni Seu providing the sealer on the back of some sensational play from Shaun Stevenson, one of the stars of the tournament.
The Highlanders beat the Brumbies 14-7 in their opening match on Saturday afternoon and also dispatched the Hurricanes 13-5 in a friendly game later that evening.
But the southerners were not at their best in their final round-robin game, losing 26-17 to the Bulls yesterday.
The Highlanders had been in a dominant position at halftime, leading 17-5.
Jason Emery had ducked under a tackle to score in the second minute, then Gareth Evans slipped over in the corner after a nice skip pass to Rob Thompson helped clear some of the heavy traffic.
Tian Schoeman replied for the Bulls, but Matt Faddes crossed just before the break to give his side a healthy buffer.
The Bulls responded with a length of the field try to Warrick Gelant from the kick off, and scored two more to secure a quarterfinal match-up with the Force.
- Additional reporting AAP