Super Rugby

With a breathtaking blend of defensive grunt and attacking inspiration, the double defending champions kept their perfect home record in playoffs intact and extended their unbeaten winning streak at Rugby League Park to 29 matches.

They will return to the venue to meet the winner of the Hurricanes and the Bulls, who play their quarter-final on Saturday.

"We knew it was going to be tough, quarter-finals are always tough," Crusaders captain Sam Whitelock said.

Smith will start at fullback after recovering from a hamstring strain which has kept him out for seven weeks.

He was expected to return last week against the Waratahs, but the Highlanders decided to give him extra time to recover.

The co-captain is one of just three changes to the Highlanders lineup with Sio Tomkinson replacing Tevita Li on the left wing.

Colin Cooper's side dug themselves out of a 0-4 hole at the start of the season and overcame the loss of key players to injury to book themselves a quarter-final against Argentina's Jaguares in Buenos Aires.

Cane said the New Zealanders had been written off at various stages during the season but managed to rally each time to stay in touch.

"There's been numerous times throughout the year when it was like 'the Chiefs are out of it', or 'they're pretty much done', or 'they're a slim mathematical hope'," he said.

Captain Christian Lealiifano and his Brumbies buddies got off the team bus, clad in blue cloth skirts of a style traditionally worn by Polynesian people.

The sign of respect has been hailed in the Pasifika rugby community, with American Samoa-born former All Black Jerome Kaino, taking to Twitter from France to say: "Love this", followed by a burst of emoji applause.

New Zealand-born former Samoa test player Fosi Pala'amo also tweeted his congratulations from Ireland.

The Brumbies are the only Australian team through to the Super Rugby finals despite a more competitive showing across the Australian conference this season.

Winning the Australian conference secured them a home quarter-final, to be played next Saturday against the Sharks, who won their final match in the 81st minute on Sunday morning.

McKellar said there was a feeling that the Brumbies had an opportunity to generate some optimism around rugby in the playoffs.

“I do think there's a sense that we're representing the country,” he said.

For Williams, though, the stakes are a little bit higher as the 33-year-old, who has missed almost the entire back half of the season after requiring surgery to his knee, seeks to prove his fitness ahead of the international campaign, and a tilt at a third straight World Cup with the All Blacks.

Rugby Australia avoided a nightmare scenario of having to decide whether to enforce its new Wallabies resting policy at the likely expense of NSW playing finals, after the Waratahs' season was all but ended by the Brumbies last week.

It means Michael Hooper, Rob Simmons, Sekope Kepu, Bernard Foley and Kurtley Beale will all likely miss the match on Friday.

NSW can still make finals but they need a bonus-point victory and several results to fall their way.

Waratahs assistant coach Steve Tandy confirmed players would be rested and backed the next wave to step up.

The fitting farewell for loose forward Scott Higginbotham and captain Samu Kerevi looked unlikely with the Reds trailing 21-5 after 23 minutes following a sluggish start.

But the hosts clawed back the deficit and secured just their sixth win of the season.

Higginbotham's first-half try, following good work by Kerevi and winger Jock Campbell, made him the first forward to notch 40 Super Rugby tries.

His effort came either side of tries to Blues' pair Tanielu Tele'a and Augustine Pulu after captain Blake Gibson opened the scoring after just three minutes.

The veteran prop's been struggling with a muscle tear in his right shoulder but has survived what appeared to be a busy training session in Christchurch on Tuesday.

Franks has to get through the full week to be considered for Saturday night's final round robin game against the Rebels. 

"It was great for him to get a good session in today," said assistant coach Ronan O'Gara. "He's tracking along nicely.

"He's been out for a substantial amount of time, so you have to be careful. He's such a prized asset that you've got to make sure you get his return to play right."

The 20-year-old rookie, who missed two handy kicks late in the opening-round defeat to the Crusaders on the same ground, stepped up with time up, the scores locked at 22-22, and victory over the visiting Bulls on his right boot.

It was a tricky kick, after a high tackle on loose forward Tom Robinson near the sideline, but he looked confident enough. It was false optimism, as the kick faded right and the Blues ended with their first draw of the season to pretty much scupper their faint hopes of ending their eight-year playoff drought.