'It was a good option': Hurricanes coach backs Super Point decision making

Super Point has made it’s first appearance in the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season during the match between the Force and the Hurricanes at HBF Park in Perth.

Fehi Fineanganofo starred for the Hurricanes, scoring early on in the match, and in the final 20 minutes, to take the lead in the back-and-forth battle between two teams fighting for the top six playoffs.

The two teams were then locked at 17 apiece after the full-time whistle, as Force first-five Ben Donaldson nailed a difficult penalty from just under halfway to force the game to extra time.

Both teams missed an opportunity at victory in Super Point, inlcuding Ruben Love’s drop goal that grazed the left hand goal post, ending the game at 17-17.

Hurricanes head coach Clark Laidlaw backs the decision of his star playmaker, explaining that when you get that sort of chance, you must make those types of risky decisions.

“Yeah, it was a good option, it hit the post, that probably sums the competition up,” Laidlaw said to media post-match in Perth.

“The fine lines of some of the games, they’ve been coming down to that type of play, say, pull trigger probably at the right time. I thought there was a chance maybe to get it to the edge a couple of phases earlier but yeah, we were hopeful it was going to go over.

“I thought we had a heap of opportunities in the second half that we certainly felt like we got on top for a bit, and we didn’t take a couple of obvious ones, and then we paid the price for that.”

One of the Hurricanes’ four vice captains Brad Shields was confused about what was going to happen after Super Point and that there might have been a kick-off between the two sides.

“I actually first thought there was going to be a kickoff. I don’t know why I thought that, but then everyone sort of started walking on the camera and stuff came along, so that must be it,” Shields explained post-match in Perth.

“I just think I put myself in a player’s shoes straight away, and we’re putting in so much effort consistently. I just think it’s a bit of a frustrating one.”

Shields was quick to pinpoint that his team had their chances but maybe wasn’t clinical enough against the Force.

“We need to stay in control of some of that momentum and when we get on top, it’s important that we constantly knock on the door.

“I think sometimes we just took our foot off the accelerator a little bit, and we couldn’t quite put them away. I think, as Clark (Laidlaw) said, we had perfect opportunities, we had obvious opportunities, but it’s that 5 per cent that’s sort of missing, unfortunately.”