Super Rugby 2015: Winners and Losers from Semi-Finals

The Hurricanes will face the Highlanders in an all-New Zealand Super Rugby final.

The table-toppers from Wellington rolled the Brumbies over 29-9 at the Cake Tin, while the Highlanders raided the home of last season’s champion Waratahs and came away with a thumping 35-17 win.

It means the Super XV title is guaranteed to return to Kiwi possession this year after crossing the Tasman Sea in 2014. It underlines the dominance of the New Zealand sides, with the Chiefs having claimed the 2012 and 2013 editions.

Here are the semi-finals’ winners and losers.

The uncapped Nehe Milner-Skudder enjoyed an eye-catching first half for the Hurricanes, busting the line and causing havoc behind the Brumbies rearguard.

The utility back’s rise has been rapid and sent him into the extended All Blacks squad named last week.

And the New Zealand Herald’s Chris Rattue saw enough in this semi-final to convince him of the 24-year-old’s Test potential: "Select him while he's hot. That was the message—loud and clear—to the All Blacks. For 40 minutes, Nehe Milner-Skudder terrorised the Brumbies before he was taken out of the semifinal so as not to tempt fate with his tight hamstring."

The Hurricanes and All Blacks fly-half had a bad night at the office and may have harmed his chances of getting much game time at the World Cup, according to the New Zealand Herald’s Chris Rattue: "His first-half misses kept the battered Brumbies spirits up. Big tests, World Cup games, are won and lost on stuff like that. Barrett was dumped as the Hurricanes' goalkicker mid-match, which was a very bad look. It's disappointing, because Barrett offers so much elsewhere."

Barrett kicked an early conversion but was wayward with his other efforts before full-back James Marshall was thrown the tee.

The No. 15 kicked two conversions and a penalty, and Rattue added that Barrett had “kicked himself out of the test starters…he just doesn't have the clinical Dan Carter-technique and psyche.”

We saw an expert piece of finishing from Highlanders wing Waisake Naholo that gave his side some breathing space in the second half.

Naholo won the race to a bobbling ball that was about to go over the dead-ball line. He was athletic enough to beat the Waratahs defenders to it and get sufficient downward pressure.

With finishing skills like that, he may be hard to leave out of New Zealand’s World Cup squad.

The 2014 champions were hindered by a malfunctioning lineout that scuppered their attempts to build momentum against the Highlanders.

They lost four on their own throw, often in key attacking positions.

There is no doubt the loss of Tatafu Polota-Nau to concussion in recent weeks has diminished their lineout’s quality, but his return wasn't enough to make a difference.

This was the worst time for the Tahs' set piece to be so sorely exposed.

As the Hurricanes’ current generation of players swept to the Super Rugby final, they took a moment to remember a former hero in the yellow and black.

They marked the tragic death of Jerry Collins with poignancy, as the New Zealand Herald reported: "Aisle six in Westpac Stadium had a blue tinge—Collins always tried to squeeze in a game in the blue and white jersey of the Norths club whenever he could—while a giant Hurricanes No 6 replica jersey was spread out on the field before kick-off in tribute."