Rugby-Lowly Highlanders upset Crusaders in Super 14

WELLINGTON, May 17 (Reuters) - The struggling Otago Highlanders upset Super 14 leaders the Canterbury Crusaders 26-14 in the final round of matches at Christchurch on Saturday.

The Highlanders scored three first-half tries then defended superbly to register only their third win of a disappointing season.

"Hopefully this is the game that everyone remembers, the players and the supporters, and hopefully everyone will want to come back next year," Otago captain Craig Newby said in a televised interview.

The Crusaders suffered just their second loss of the year but are still guaranteed of finishing the regular season on top of the standings.

They will host the fourth-placed team in next week's sudden-death semi-finals.

"We have got next week to look forward to but we're going to have to be a whole lot better if we're going to be competitive," Canterbury skipper Richie McCaw said.

FLYING START

The Crusaders made a flying start to the all-Kiwi match when hooker Corey Flynn scored in the fifth minute off a lineout but spent the rest of the half defending after making a series of uncharacteristic errors.

The Highlanders drew level when wing Paul Williams intercepted a crossfield kick from Canterbury flyhalf Dan Carter then opened up a commanding 23-14 halftime lead when flanker Adam Thomson and scrumhalf Toby Morland added tries.

Mike Delany scored the only points of the second half with a lone penalty, his third of the game, to provide his side with the perfect end to the season and give the Crusaders plenty to work on before the playoffs.

The Crusaders were lucky to get away with a win after a scrappy performance in their previous match against Queensland and McCaw had hoped for an improvement on that.

"We thought we had a good wake-up call last week but a good Highlanders side put us under pressure and we made mistakes," he said.

"We got a bit frantic. We perhaps tried to play in our own half a wee bit."

(Reporting by Julian Linden in Sydney. Editing by Padraic Halpin)