'We've been searching': Clark Laidlaw's honest reflection after win in Canberra

This season of Super Rugby Pacific has seen a few New Zealand teams attempt to win in Australia, all without success, until Saturday evening when the Hurricanes overcame a strong Brumbies side in Canberra.

The teams contested the ‘Captain Shout Cup’ for the very first time, that will be on the line every year between the two sides. The trophy is named after Captain Alfred Shout VC, MC, who is a hero in Gallipoli with links to both New Zealand and Australia.

Clark Laidlaw’s team were certainly the underdogs heading into the round 11 matchup, especially since the Hurricanes haven’t won in Canberra since 2017.

Both Ngatungane Punivai and Kini Naholo went over for two tries each, continuing their sharp try-scoring form from recent weeks.

Laidlaw is proud of his playing group, especially the way they prepared during the week.

“We’ve not won here since 2017 so it’s a tough place to come and win, as all the teams know when you travel here. So I’m just super happy with the week,” Laidlaw told media post-match in Canberra.

“We put a really good week together to start in Perth, for the first part of the week and then we travelled over midweek, and then trained really well.

“It’s a big win, as you say and we can all see how tight the table is. So getting a win on the road and picking up some points is satisfying.”

Laidlaw believes the win on Saturday evening is the most complete performance of their season, even better than the 57-12 home victory against the Waratahs in round seven.

“We’ve obviously got a good attacking flow against the Waratahs that night, but I felt like this was a more complete performance against a really good side.

“Away from home, we’ve got a huge amount of respect for the Brumbies around what they achieve and how well they play at home, and we knew it was going to be tough.

“So yeah this is probably the best overall performance in the year.”

Despite the pleasing performance, the Hurricanes head coach admits they’ve been seeking improvement in specific areas over the past few weeks.

“We’ve been searching for a few things in our game, different parts at different times. Some weeks we’ve defended well, some weeks we’ve had some of our attack go well or at set piece.

“So it was more around getting more parts of our game going at the same time, and I feel like we can still play like a whole heap better because we made it hard for ourselves at the end.”

Although the Hurricanes were leading in the closing stages of the match in Canberra, Laidlaw says he didn’t feel that comfortable until the final whistle.

“Even right up to the end, I was sort of half panicking that we were gonna throw an intercept or something, rather than just sticking the ball up in the air.

“We worked really hard to try and produce some fast ball and get on the front foot and we get guys like Kini (Naholo) and Ngatungane (Punivai) and Billy (Proctor) on the front foot, then we’re a dangerous team.”