Hurricanes player ratings vs Highlanders | Super Rugby Pacific
The Hurricanes made it two wins on the trot after backing up last week’s scintillating win over the Blues with a 21-14 victory over the Highlanders this evening.
The home side were far from perfect in their first outing at the Cake Tin in 2022, but thanks to some timely scores and an equally as scrappy performance from their opposition they now find themselves in the top half of the table.
Here’s how the Hurricanes rated:
1. Pouri Rakete-Stones – 4
Was sent backwards for most of the night at scrum time and gave away a very kickable three points in the opening quarter. His struggles didn’t do anything to knock his work rate though, and he was rewarded for his efforts with his team’s first try.
2. Siua Maile 4
Shaky with his delivery at the set piece to start the game and failed to wrap on a couple tackle attempts, but grew in confidence as the game wore on.
3. Tyrel Lomax – 6
The second best forward on the park for the Hurricanes behind the routinely superb Savea. Conceded an early scrum penalty but from then on got the better of his opposite (De Groot) when they locked horns and in general play. Off at the hour mark for Mafileo.
4. James Blackwell – 4
Does a lot of work that goes unappreciated by casual fans and doesn’t shy away from a tough carry despite being on the receiving end more often than not. Still has the odd error in him, take the spilled kick off as an example, although he more than made up for it with a team-high 18 tackles.
5. Caleb Delany – 5
Showed off his stride lengths with a few nice gallops after popping up in support and got stuck into the action on both sides of the ball. He could use a few extra kilos to match it with others in the engine room, but got through a mountain of work to state his claim for another run next week.
6. Reed Prinsep – 5
Another no-nonsense showing from the robust blindside. Provided the rough edge to what is a more dynamic rather than physically imposing loosie trio, and failed to miss a tackle in his 13 attempts.
7. Du’Plessis Kirifi 5
Back in the action after a week on the side-lines and showed no signs of carrying a niggle. Made himself enough of a nuisance to disrupt the Highlanders fluidity and seems to be picking his moments at the breakdown better than in years past. However, his turnover count is also down from it typically is, so he’ll keep working on finding the right balance.
8. Ardie Savea – 8
It’s hard to put into words what this guy brings to his team in both tangible and intangible sense. The skipper amassed a dozen tackles, a few of which were made as a covering defender, to go along with a number of rampaging carries and a pair of turnovers. It’s also worth mentioning that the timeliness of his second pinch was crucial as the Highlanders were on a roll inside the red zone.
9. Richard Judd – 4
The stop, start nature of the game made it hard for the journeyman to get into a rhythm and his forward’s lack of accuracy with cleanouts made his job even harder. Late arrivals to the breakdown are on him though, and his side’s attack suffered as a result.
10. Ruben Love – 5
Didn’t get as much front foot ball as he would’ve liked and spent most of the evening directing play. Had a couple of nice touches to set up his team’s first dot through Rakete-Stones try and put Sullivan into a hole in the lead up to Proctor crossing the chalk.
11. Salesi Rayasi – 5
Had very few touches despite playing the full 80. The Highlanders directed most of the kicking towards Savea’s side of the pitch, which was the smart thing to do with Rayasi looking dangerous whenever he managed to get his hands on the pill.
12. Billy Proctor – 5
Looked to have suffered an injury before bouncing back up with the unenviable task of covering Thomas Umaga-Jensen. Made his tackles and ran a good line close to the sticks to bag a meatie.
13. Bailyn Sullivan – 5
Not as impactful as last week, which was always going to be hard to top, but once again showed flashes of the threat he poses when left with room to move. Fell just short of double digits in tackles.
14. Julian Savea – 5
Had a case of the dropsies in the first 40 after dropping an uncontested box kick and leaving the ball behind him after being hit on the chest off a scrum move. On a positive note, he stopped what should’ve been a try by pulling Coombes-Fabling down just short and carried with vigour when he had two mitts on the seed.
15. Jordie Barrett – 5
An average night by the All Black’s standards. Struck the upright with his first attempt off the tee from a handy position and followed up a lot of his good work with a less than desirable action. Grew in stature after a few solid kick returns and assisted Love with making sure the Canes were playing down the Highlanders’ end.
Reserves:
16. Raymond Tuputupu – N/A
Subbed off in 74th minute.
17. Xavier Numia – 5
Held up better than the man he replaced in the scrum and was lively with the ball in hand.
18. Tevita Mafileo – 5
Nothing to sing home about, but was rock steady in his core duties.
19. Devan Flanders – 5
Thrown into the action halfway through the final quarter yet still managed to put a Highlander on the ground a handful of times.
20. Brayden Iose – 6
A player that was made for injecting late into proceedings but is putting together a worthy case for more meaningful minutes. A combination of he, Savea and Flanders is mouth-watering.
21. Logan Henry – 6
Subbed on with 15 to go and ran a great support line to pick up a try on debut. His pass also appeared to be crisper than Judd’s service, but bear in mind the Canes’ work at the breakdown was tidier during his cameo.
22. Jackson Garden-Bachop – N/A
On for Love in the 70th minute.
23. Peter Umaga-Jensen – 6
Another notable performance off the pine for the one-cap All Black. Stood up Scott Gregory with a great in and out before firing back on the inside to Henry for the match-sealing score.
Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments