Rusty Hurricanes kept scoreless in blowout pre-season loss to Chiefs

The Chiefs have won a scrappy pre-season game against the Hurricanes at Jerry Collins Stadium in Porirua, with the hosts failing to score a single point throughout 80 minutes of action.

Both teams welcomed some All Blacks back into the fold for the contest, but even with Ruben Love at 10 and Jordie Barrett at 12, the Hurricanes’ attack misfired time and time again. The Chiefs made some special plays, especially late in the game, to emerge as 29-0 victors.

Etene Nanai-Seturo looked dangerous from the outset for the Chiefs, making tacklers miss in tight spaces during phase play. It was the fullback who got the Chiefs on the scoreboard first when Daniel Rona broke the line on a lineout strike play, offloading to Wallace Sititi before the ball found Nanai-Seturo, who beat Ruben Love to the corner.

Star recruit Lalaki Foketi went down for the Chiefs within the opening 10 minutes and was helped from the field.

Emoni Narawa and George Dyer produced some big defensive plays for the Chiefs, with the team’s grit under new head coach Jono Gobbes evident.

The Hurricanes were also their own worst enemies, with plenty of handling errors and penalties killing any momentum they could generate.

That trend continued in the second period and was quickly punished by Cortez Ratima, who was in support to collect an offload and extend his side’s lead to 10-0.

One positive for the Hurricanes in the first half was the scrum, where they looked consistently like the more powerful of the two packs. That upper hand continued in the second half despite substitutions filtering into the contest.

The Chiefs, though, were the more composed team closer to the line and got their third try of the day with strong, persistent phase play.

Yet another Hurricanes handling error, this time just five metres from the Chiefs’ try-line, then led to the Chiefs running 95 metres to score through Cortez Ratima.

A yellow card only made matters worse for the ‘Canes, and an intercept 10 metres from the Chiefs’ tryline that resulted in another knock-on summed up the hosts’ rusty afternoon all too well.

Cortez Ratima sold a dummy running off the ensuing scrum and galloped 40 metres before finding support, with the Chiefs stringing together another two passes to complete another full-field try.

The final 10 minutes of the game were the most expansive, and the Hurricanes did manage to get over the line, only to have the try ruled out due to a double movement. Full-time score: 29-0.