Centre Matt Faddes scored two tries as the Otago Highlanders cruised to a bonus-point 40-15 victory over the Sunwolves in their Super Rugby match at Invercargill yesterday.
Faddes touched down twice in an eight-minute burst after half time as the 2015 champions notched a fourth straight win to shore up their place in the play-offs.
Malakai Fekitoa, Liam Squire, Aaron Smith and Ben Smith also crossed, with Marty Banks converting five of the home side's six tries.
After an early penalty by flyhalf Yu Tamura, the Japanese visitors were scoreless for nearly 50 minutes but grabbed consolation tries to Willie Britz and Rahboni Warren-Vosayaco late.
Appearing in disarray after the opening rounds of the season, the Highlanders have now clicked into gear and their potent backline cut the Sunwolves to pieces in the middle part of the match.
Coming off a bye, they were rusty early and were kept scoreless in the last quarter, leaving captain Ben Smith feeling lukewarm about the performance ahead of a crunch match against the Stormers.
"It wasn't perfect and at times we threw a few miracle balls and didn't show them the respect, so there's a bit to work on," Smith said.
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