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Sam Darry's honest reflection after Hurricanes reality check


Blues players leave the field after warming up during the round nine Super Rugby match between Hurricanes and Blues at Hnry Stadium, on April 11, 2026, in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
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Stand-in Blues captain Sam Darry has reflected on his side’s heavy defeat at the hands of the high-flying Hurricanes in Wellington, where the home side proved their title credentials.

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The Hurricanes had come into the top-of-the-table matchup on Saturday night having started the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season in red-hot form, winning five out of their first six games.

Their 42-19 victory at Hnry Stadium in Wellington was a clinical showing, putting to bed the discussions around how Clark Laidlaw’s side’s “soft draw” was why the Wellington-based franchise was leading the competition.

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Darry, who skippered Vern Cotter’s side against the Hurricanes, agreed that this result was not only frustrating but a bit of a reality check.

“Yeah, I think as we said, we got taught a bit of a lesson,” Darry told media in Wellington.

“It’s never nice getting 40 points put on you, it hurts. But I think the crucial part of it as well is that we learned from it. Still got a long way to go as a team.

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“We know we can be a lot better and a lot more accurate in certain areas and if we can fix a few things up, we really trust our game.

“We trust the group we’ve got, so as long as we learn from it and improve, hopefully we’ll be better for it.”

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Cotter, who will depart the Blues at the end of the season for the Queensland Reds, found the positives out of the game, despite agreeing that they were off the pace in a number of areas.

“I think that a lesson in rugby. They had the rugby on their fingertips, and we lost touch of our game a couple of times, and you can’t do that against these boys, they’re too good,” Cotter said post-match.

“So we’re back to having a good look at ourselves, which is probably good timing and we’ll start from scratch and work out what we can keep, because I think it’s quite a bit in that game that we can keep.

“There’s other bits that we need to keep, and other bits that we need to improve on over the next few weeks.”

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One area identified by the 64-year-old Blues head coach was set piece, admitting they’ll have to look closely at what went wrong against the Hurricanes.

“I thought our two tries coming back gave us confidence, but then there were a couple of errors under pressure. I think we need to make better decisions on obviously the set piece, at times it was wobbly.

“So also, you need to have a good look at that. But it’s just, I think it was great for the boys to play against the team that was on, and I think probably the form team at the moment just to see where we’re at.”

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7 Comments
K
Karlos G 44 days ago

Hurricanes my team, born and bred in Welly but escaped to Coolangatta!

Things l've noticed is an increase of skill level and less of wayward passes like flinging it into space(no one in particular)when going towards the touchline or to ground in a tackle instead of holding on going out or recycling there's been the odd one but there’s so much more ball security

And it helps that they would have 7 or 8 players either in the ABs or really fringe players now.With a bigger squad going to SA am pretty sure we’re gonna see a few more names from the Hurricanes that haven't been in previously

J
JW 46 days ago

Their backline was good, especially Taele, it was the first to disrupt the flow of the Canes and it was only really some brilliance from their insides and outsides that put the points on the board for Canes.


They just shoulda been able to score closing the out the game and within two tries of this Canes team is a good effort. Blues will learn a lot from this big hitout too, perhaps more.

O
OutRun22 46 days ago

I wish Dern was available for the all blacks he was and has been outstanding. But it’s ‘who’s not’ playing well for the Hurricanes because they are all playing well. Darry is a quality Forward and an all black starter or off the bench. Forwards in the all blacks are crucial, less mistakes, quick ruck ball these things will never diminish.

C
Cantab 46 days ago

I was impressed by the Hurricanes all round effort against the Blues. Whilst they always had a strong back contingent they now are strong up front as well and this augers well for them going into the business end of the season. Yet to play the Crusaders & the Chiefs but those two adversaries will need to be at their very best to hold them out.

G
GM 46 days ago

Vern’s doing a pretty good job, given they lost Ofa early and haven’t got Paddy, Dalts, Hoskins or Suafoa in the pack - all of whom would have been starters this year.

J
JW 45 days ago

They’ve none of their top loose trio, and just two of their tight five on the weekend.


Segner has been used at 6 in a consistent role though, and is better at 7, so while not at Daltz level you could argue they got more out of that switch. But even though he has been used at 6, when it comes to the crunch and a fit squad, you could easily see the Blues selecting Beehre, Christie, Barnes in a big game like this too.

S
SB 46 days ago

No big issue, just a regular season game. Big dogs to come back into the forward pack will help come playoff time.

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