Kini Naholo powers Hurricanes to upset win over Brumbies In Canberra

The ACT Brumbies have blown a golden chance to maintain contact with the Super Rugby Pacific ladder leaders after an upset loss to the Hurricanes in Canberra.

The third-placed Brumbies hadn’t lost at home to the Hurricanes, who sit eighth on the table, since 2017 and had won five of their past six clashes.

But they couldn’t catch the men from Wellington, going down in a thriller 35-29 on Saturday.

Burly Hurricanes winger Kini Naholo steamrolled his rivals to score two tries in a stand-out performance in the capital.

Australia’s top-ranked side started well, with skipper Allan Alaalatoa burrowing his way over the line in the eighth minute.

But in keeping with the theme of the night, each time they scored the visitors answered with a try of their own.

Centre Billy Proctor was first across the tryline, running on to a massive cut-out pass from Callum Harkin, followed up by Ngantungane Punivai to give the Hurricanes a 10-5 lead.

Brumbies flanker Luke Reimer then sniffed out a try, only for Naholo to hit back three minutes later after some neat lead-up work by Ruben Love and Harkin, with the Hurricanes taking a 20-15 lead into halftime.

With the Brumbies only managing 32 per cent of possession and 23 per cent of territory, they had to work for every point, but newly re-signed Len Ikitau came up trumps with the first try of the second half.

But Naholo used his speed and brute strength to cut a swathe through the Brumbies defence, and his team were out to an eight-point lead, which soon became 13 thanks to Punivai’s second.

In typical Brumbies fashion they kept coming and were eventually rewarded with winger Andy Muirhead crossing in the corner in the 70th minute, with Noah Lolesio adding the extras from the sideline.

The home side had plenty of time to score the winning try, but a series of poor decisions and errors proved costly.