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The Highlanders played with passion in front of their home crowd on Saturday night and gave the fans at Forsyth Barr Stadium something to celebrate by downing the Crusaders 27-24.

An early penalty to the Highlanders put the first 3 points on the board, but this was reciprocated by Tyler Bleyendaal for the Crusaders soon after to match things up.

A well-executed set move from the Crusaders confused the Highlanders’ defence and allowed loose forward Matt Todd to storm through a gap.  Israel Dagg was ready for the offload and dotted down for the first try of the game.  Bleyendaal’s conversion put the Crusaders ahead 10-3.

The Highlanders wasted no time in evening things up again though, with a try from hooker Andrew Hore and conversion from first five Lima Sopoaga making it 10-all.

The Highlanders kept up a consistent attack for the remainder of the first half and were rewarded with another penalty then a converted try from Phil Burleigh. That left the Crusaders trailing by 10 points to the Highlanders’ 20 at the halftime whistle.

The Crusaders regrouped and came out firing in the second half. Within 15 minutes they had taken back the lead by one point, thanks to six penalty points off Bleyendaal’s boot and five points from Andy Ellis flipping over the try line.  Another successful penalty conversion by Bleyendaal in the 65th minute gave the Crusaders 24 points to the Highlanders’ 20.

Unfortunately those were the last points the Crusaders would score in this match.  The Highlanders on the other hand had another try up Hosea Gear’s sleeve, and Sopoaga managed the conversion from wide to put them on 27 points.

Some confusion over the clock saw the Highlanders kick the ball out with three minutes left to play according to the referee but not the scoreboard.  Then, in a moment that mimicked the Blues’ performance at the end of last weekend’s match against the Crusaders, Bleyendaal attempted to turn a loss into a draw with a drop goal. But the last gasp effort was unsuccessful and the Crusaders suffered their first loss of 2012.

Crusaders 24 (Dagg, Ellis tries; Bleyendaal con and pen 4)

Highlanders 27 (Hore, Burleigh, Gear tries; Sopoaga con 3 and pen 2)