Brad Thorn watched the last minutes of his 100th Super Rugby match from the sin-bin, seeing his Highlanders cling on grimly to a fragile lead and beat the Sharks 25-22, ending an abject run of eight straight losses this year.
Saturday’s match was only Thorn’s eighth for the Dunedin-based Highlanders – he played 92 times and won five championships with the Crusaders – but few victories in the 38-year-old’s career meant more as he helped the team to their first win of the season.
Thorn was born and raised in the small settlement of Mosgiel, only a few kilometres from the stadium where the match was played. Though he made his name first as a rugby league player in Australia and then as an All Black, he told fans after the game he had never forgotten his Dunedin roots.
“I’m just really honoured to come back to where I’m from and I’m very, very proud to play in front of my people,” Thorn said. “Thank you so much to everyone who’s stayed with us. I know it’s been tough.
“I know we’ve been beaten but we’ve never dropped our heads and we’ve fought all the way tonight and finally got one for us and for you.”
Despite the win, the Highlanders were still left at the bottom of the table but only a point behind the Southern Kings who were routed 72-10 at home in Port Elizabeth by the NSW Waratahs.
The Highlanders led 25-22 when Sharks centre Meyer Bosman scored his second try in the 61st minute. They then had to repel wave after wave of attacks from the Durban-based Sharks, many of them stretching to more than 25 phases.
The Sharks refused to kick for goal from any of the stream of penalties they received in the dying minutes. A penalty would have given them a draw but they wanted a try, a win and a four-try bonus point.
The Highlanders’ defence, suspect at times this season, held firm. Thorn sacrificed himself with a professional foul but never retired to the plastic chair which acts as the sin-bin in Super Rugby matches in Dunedin. Instead, he knelt close to the sideline, close to the action in the gripping closing moments of the game.
Just when it seemed the Highlanders’ defence would crack, winger Hosea Gear made a heavy tackle, jarred the ball free and the hosts were able to scramble a last possession which stopped the clock.