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Hurricanes' horror start to the Super Rugby season
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Hurricanes fans – how’s this for starters? On Friday in Takapuna your team will play the Blues in their second and final pre-season match. It’s probably fair to say they have a few things to work on after losing 40-19 to the Crusaders in Ashburton yesterday.
The Blues players, meanwhile, will be looking forward to a rare visit to Onewa Domain (their only game on the North Shore this year as, rather than playing at North Harbour Stadium, they will host the Jaguares in Northland in April) after beating the Chiefs 26-19 in Waihi in their first hit-out.
A day after the match the Hurricanes will fly to Cape Town to play the Stormers in their opening game before considering more long-haul travel to get to Buenos Aires to play the Jaguares a week later.
They will be without Ardie Savea (knee surgery) and Beauden Barrett (gone to Blues). They may be without wing Jonah Lowe, who injured a shoulder which has troubled him in the past.
If it wasn’t already evident, this has the makings of a very difficult season for their new head coach Jason Holland, a man who got the gig after former boss John Plumtree was appointed one of new All Blacks coach Ian Foster’s assistants.
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It was always going to be that way once Barrett announced he was joining the Blues but loose forward Savea’s injury is a massive blow and the opening two matches in South Africa and Argentina a week apart could hardly have been more challenging.
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One victory from those two would have to be considered a fair return and while the Hurricanes have it a little easier when they are back in New Zealand; the Sharks in Wellington and Sunwolves in Napier, they then go on a run of three derbies against the Blues, Chiefs and Crusaders.
The first few rounds are likely to be played out in blazing summer heat – the Blues kick things off against the Chiefs at Eden Park on the absurdly early date of January 31 – but that’s likely to be relatively kind compared with what is Holland’s baptism of fire.
Pre-season matches count for little as far as results go but another big loss against the Blues will do little for the Hurricanes’ confidence and should the skids go under their season it will be very difficult to pull it back without an experienced driver at 10.
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“We need to be more efficient around our carry and our cleanout and our breakdown,” Holland told reporters in Ashburton after his side let slip a 12-0 lead against the Crusaders.
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“That’s a big area around us getting momentum and being able to play. The Crusaders slowed our ball down a lot today. That’s a little bit around our attacking shape and what we do there and just around a bit of mongrel at the breakdown.”
It was a similar story in Sydney where the Highlanders let slip a 14-0 lead to the Waratahs to lose 40-21. It was former Canterbury coach Rob Penney’s first game in charge of the Sydneysiders and an indication perhaps that he may bring a new steel to what is generally an underachieving franchise.
“I’m rapt with the calibre of talent that is there and it has just reinforced to me how far this group could go,” Penney said.
This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and is republished with permission.
The Stormers face one of the kinder Super Rugby draws this year:
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
29 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
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