Super sub Bailyn Sullivan bags four as Hurricanes fire past Chiefs

The Hurricanes have claimed a massive win in the context of their season, putting the horrors of last year’s semi-final loss to rest by beating the Chiefs 35-17 at Wellington’s Sky Stadium. Ruben Love led by example at first five-eighth, while Bailyn Sullivan scored four tries off the bench.

This was the third loss of the season for the Chiefs, who still hold a strong position up the top of the Super Rugby Pacific ladder. As for the Canes, this win has seen them cut down the gap between themselves and the fourth-placed Queensland Reds.

Love got the match underway at the Cake Tin, with the Hurricanes controlling possession in the early exchanges. It was a war of attrition as they launched wave after wave of attacking pressure, but the Chiefs stood tall in defence within their own half.

But the match took a dramatic turn in the seventh minute, with the Chiefs coming close to what would’ve been a miraculous point-scoring opener out of nowhere. Josh Jacomb hoofed the ball upfield, and it almost sat up perfectly for Samipeni Finau, who couldn’t quite reel it in.

At the break in play that followed, both teams grouped into their respective huddles, with the Hurricanes’ medical staff attending to Kini Naholo. Naholo had been one of the competition’s form wingers to date, but was carried off the field and replaced by Bailyn Sullivan.

While that passage of play went against the Hurricanes, the home side ended up breaking the deadlock in the 12^th minute through Love, who successfully knocked over a penalty attempt. But the Hurricanes’ lead was short-lived, lasting less than 10 minutes.

Outside centre Daniel Rona scored the first try of the match midway through the first half after breaking a couple of tackle attempts, including one from Riley Higgins. Rona received a short ball from Shaun Stevenson but still had plenty of work to do, but made it look easy in the end.

Love would kick the Canes back into the lead with two penalty goals in just three minutes, which made it a 9-7 game after 28 minutes. Jacomb cancelled out that second shot at goal with a penalty of his own, giving the Chiefs a one-point advantage in the dying stages of the half.

It seemed the Chiefs were destined to go into the break up by one point, but the tense match would have another twist before the half, with Rona racing away for a second after intercepting a pass from Billy Proctor in mid-field.

Suddenly, the Chiefs were up by eight at the break.

The Hurricanes reduced their deficit five minutes into the second term, and Sullivan proved to be a super sub with a try. Proctor made amends for the intercept earlier on by sending Sullivan over with a well-worked cut-out pass – the try-scorer quite literally walking it in for the score.

It was one-way traffic for most of the half from there, with Stevenson shown a yellow card for a high shot in the lead-up to Sullivan’s second try soon after. Sullivan completed an incredible hat-trick off the bench, reaping the rewards of a Love cross-field kick in the 64^th minute.

In the lead-up to Sullivan’s third of the evening, Callum Harkin sent an inch-perfect 50/22 deep into the Chiefs’ half, with the ball rolling into touch a metre out from the try line. It just seemed to click for the hosts, with the replacement out-wide benefiting the most.

You’d be forgiven for feeling some déjà vu with seven minutes left.

It was that man again scoring near the right sideline, with Higgins putting a well-worked grubber kick through for Sullivan to chase. That was Sullivan’s fourth try of the match, and sixth of the season, as the Canes took a commanding 18-point lead.

While both teams threw the ball around in a bid to end the match with more points, their attacking efforts were in vain, with the scores going unchanged for the last eight minutes. The Chiefs had a rolling maul close to the Canes’ line in the final play, but a knock-on brought an end to the New Zealand derby.