Moana Pasifika endured a torrid time after their introduction to Super Rugby in 2022 but the team established to provide a pathway for players from the Pacific islands has hit its stride this season with skipper Ardie Savea leading the way.

The Auckland-based team won only seven of 42 games over their first three seasons but on Sunday secured their fifth of the current campaign with a maiden victory over the Highlanders in a Dunedin thriller.

Moana have also beaten 14-time champions Crusaders and New South Wales' Waratahs for the first time this year. Sunday's win took them to sixth on the table, good enough for a place in the playoffs if they can hold onto it.

"Just proud, proud of everything that we've achieved," Tana Umaga, Moana's coach of the last two seasons, told reporters after the game.

"We've put ourselves in a position where we're competing to be in the top six, and we're pretty happy about it."

Former All Blacks captain Umaga was particularly pleased with the manner of the 34-29 victory, which was secured off a charged down kick in the final few minutes.

"The way we won today was just a lot of grit and guts, it wasn't a pretty game," Umaga added.

"But knowing that we can win like that is good for us, because it does give you belief that when we knuckle down and just work together and trust everything that we're about, we're going to get results like that."

Savea, the All Blacks No 8 and 2023 World Rugby Player of the Year, made a shock switch to Moana for this season and has been in sensational form, adding another brilliant individual try on Sunday.

Like Umaga, Savea and his All Black brother Julian were born in New Zealand to Samoan migrant parents and represent a core of players from the Pacific islands diaspora in the squad.

Others, like Melani Matavao, the scrumhalf whose try secured Sunday's victory, and flanker Miracle Fai'ilagi, who has been in impressive form this year, are "straight from the islands", in Umaga's words.

Together they have forged a hard-nosed team that now sits only two wins from a first post-season campaign, although their run-in looks particularly tough.

After a bye next week, they host Umaga's old team, the reigning champions Blues, before closing out the season with away games at the tournament-leading Chiefs and Hurricanes, Savea's old club.

"This is when the good teams stand up, at the back end of seasons," said Umaga.

"We've got some guys that have been here before and are experienced around that. And knowing that we can have confidence in who we are, we've just got to make sure that we execute our game. That's the key thing for us."