The Highlanders will be seeing yellow.

They picked up a yellow card late in the first half and it proved costly.

The Chiefs ran in two tries with the extra man to set up a 42-12 win in Hamilton tonight.

The Highlanders’ playoff prospects are now only held together by an impossibly thin mathematical thread.

They also lost star winger Caleb Tangitau to a serious-looking knee injury in the final moments of the game.

It was the Chiefs’ 250th win and their ninth in a row against the Highlanders.

The loss has left the Dunedin-based team stranded in seventh place — one spot outside of the top six — with one round-robin match remaining.

That game is against competition front-runners the Hurricanes in Wellington.

They are toast.

And the Chiefs took a bite, scoring six tries.

The home side dominated the opening exchanges.

Loose forward Simon Parker made a monster tackle on halfback Adam Lennox to set up a turnover for the Chiefs.

They battered away but the Highlanders’ defence held up.

When the visitors…