Clark Laidlaw's Ruben Love verdict after tense Chiefs battle

McKenzie’s team were victorious, but the battle between the two All Blacks playmakers was intriguing, a matchup Dave Rennie would have had eyes on from minute one.

The Chiefs’ first-five had a drop goal charged down, while missing a crucial penalty goal in normal time could have cost his side. Love also missed a wide conversion opportunity, but the 5-Test All Black showcased his game-driving ability with some nice kicks in behind the Chiefs defence.

McKenzie made a game-high two-line breaks in Hamilton, and his 13 carries was more than any Hurricanes player, only behind Samisoni Taukei’aho’s 17.

When asked about Ruben Love’s performance on Saturday night, and the matchup between him and McKenzie, Clark Laidlaw said that his No.10 will have some minor things to work on.

“Yeah there’s definitely a couple of things that he can grow from. If you compare them to Damian, I don’t know how many Super Rugby Pacific games he’s played and Test matches you’ve got at 10, so it was a great challenge for him,” Laidlaw said after the Saturday night contest.

Despite a lot of the public discussion around the matchup, the Scotland-born Hurricanes head coach explained that it’s easy to look at the No.10 when things are going wrong, but there’s more to it.

“If Damian’s the yardstick alongside Beauden Barrett in the country, then if Ruben’s next, then we can review his game, and it’s not just up to the No.10 to game drive, it’s the whole thing, you have to win line outs, you have to have continuity at the breakdown to get on the front foot.

“So yeah, Ruben’s had a good start to the season, and there will definitely be some stuff for us to continue to help him develop. None of our players are the sort of finished article, I’m sure there’ll be some really good stuff for us to take out with that tonight.”

Hurricanes captain Du’Plessis Kirifi was quick to admit that the Chiefs forced them to make errors, especially in the first 15 minutes after halftime.

“We didn’t start the second half the way we would have liked to have in terms of control and momentum, some unforced errors, some forced and the Chiefs are a great team, who apply a lot of pressure,” Kirifi told media in Hamilton.

“If we had our time again, maybe a little bit different, little bit more accurate. But yeah, you can see how important small moments are, like those in a game like tonight, and the two best teams are going at it, and then throwing themselves at each other physically.”