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Profile of the Super rugby champion Otago Highlanders

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Profile of the Otago Highlanders, who won the southern hemisphere's Super Rugby title on Saturday. * Like the other New Zealand franchises, the Otago Highlanders are an amalagam of provincial sides, in their case North Otago, Otago and Southland, they are the smallest in population terms of the five New Zealand Super Rugby sides. * The Highlanders nickname comes from the strong Scottish connection with Dunedin. The city's name comes from Dun Eideann, the Scottish Gaelic word for Edinburgh. * The team also plays matches at Rugby Park in Invercargill, one of the southern-most cities in the world. * Otago has historically been strengthened by Otago University students and the early Highlanders teams containing several out of town players like Josh Kronfeld, Taine Randell and John Leslie. * Students, known as "scarfies", provided a noisy and loyal fan base, often popping up in other centres after graduating from university. * Dunedin police officer Gordon Hunter was named the first coach of the side, although he left after the first season when he joined the All Blacks selection panel. * They made at least the semi-finals in four of the five seasons from 1998 to 2002 due to the influence of All Blacks like Kronfeld, Jeff Wilson, Carl Hoeft and Anton Oliver. * They hosted the 1999 final at Carisbrook -- nicknamed 'the House of Pain' -- after finishing second on the table. * The game against the Canterbury Crusaders was billed as "the party at Tony Brown's place" as a play on their flyhalf's name and a popular television advertisement for an insurance company. They lost the match 24-19. * They made the semi-finals again in 2000 and 2002, losing both matches to the Crusaders, and then suffered more than a decade of mediocrity. * Former Otago stalwart Greg Cooper guided the team for four seasons between the 2003 and 2007 World Cups with their highest finish sixth in 2006. * Cooper left in 2007 and they finished no higher than ninth for the next three seasons before former All Blacks loose forward Jamie Joseph was tempted to return to Dunedin in 2011 after a successful provincial coaching career with Wellington. * The team played their final season at Carisbrook in 2011, finishing eighth in the first year of 15 teams, before moving to the indoor Otago Regional Stadium. * While beginning promisingly, a lack of depth showed up again in 2012 when they lost five of their last seven games and slipped out of playoff contention. * An off-season recruitment drive in 2013 brought All Blacks Tony Woodcock and Ma'a Nonu to the team but they won just three games and finished 14th. * They returned to the playoffs in 2014 by finishing sixth overall before losing to South Africa's Sharks. * Made this year's final after some consistent performances that led to All Blacks call-ups for flyhalf Lima Sopoaga and winger Waisake Naholo. * Hooker Oliver has played the most games for the Highlanders (127), while Brown scored the most Super Rugby points (942), although he also played two seasons for the Sharks and Stormers. (Compiled by Greg Stutchbury; Editing by Nick Mulvenney)