Hurricanes reach Super 14 final

Sydney - Jimmy Gopperth kicked a 50m penalty eight minutes from time to hand New Zealand's Hurricanes a 16-14 win over Australia's New South Wales Waratahs in a Super 14 semifinal on Friday.

The replacement flyhalf calmly slotted the ball over the posts to send the Hurricanes through to their first final since the competition, originally known as the Super 12, started in 1996.

The Hurricanes will play the winner of Saturday's second semifinal between New Zealand's Canterbury Crusaders and the Bulls of South Africa in next week's final.

"I'm very proud of the boys, we took it right to the wire," Hurricanes captain Rodney So'oialo said in a televised interview.

"It makes it all that much sweeter when you beat a tough team like them."

The Waratahs, beaten finalists last season, looked to have snatched victory when wing Peter Hewat booted two penalties to put his team 14-13 in front, but a collapsed scrum gave the Hurricanes the penalty they needed to regain the lead.

NSW captain Chris Whitaker said Wellington had deserved to win, but he was perplexed by the referee's decision to penalise his team for collapsing the scrum when they had the feed in a good attacking position.

"What can I say? It was one of those 50-50 calls it could have gone either way," he said.

"But I'm very proud of the way we hung in there. It was always going to be tough to come here and win and were under the pump for a long time."

The Hurricanes made a strong start, racing to a 6-0 lead inside the first eight minutes after scrumhalf Piri Weepu then starting flyhalf David Holwell both kicked early penalties.

The Waratahs scored the first try when Wallabies wing Lote Tuqiri burst through a hole and quickly recycled the ball for Hewat to dive over in the right corner.

Hewat missed the sideline conversion but was on target with a penalty shot in the 20th minute that put the visitor's in front for the first time.

The Hurricanes, who dominated the scrums, regained the lead when Samoan winger Lome Fa'atua sliced his way through to score near the posts, giving Holwell a simple conversion to put his team 13-8 up at the break.

The Hurricanes almost scored a second try just before the interval when wing Shannon Paku dived on a perfectly-weighted kick from Holwell but the video referee ruled the ball had touched the in-goal sideline before he got to it.

The hosts dominated the opening exchanges of the second half, but the Waratahs' defence held firm against waves of attack.

The Hurricanes turned down a kick to goal that would have put them eight points in front with 25 minutes to go and were almost left to rue their decision when Hewat landed two penalties to put the Waratahs ahead with 10 minutes to go.

Gopperth's long-range penalty put the Hurricanes back in front and NSW's last chance disappeared when Tuqiri missed a long-range drop goal.