What has happened to the Hurricanes?
Chris Boyd summed it up as ‘the worst 40 minutes of football we’ve played in four years’ after the Hurricanes had just lost their third straight match, the first time under his watch that has happened.
‘I don’t think there is any excuse, we just gave away too many penalties, allowed them territory. They would just kick to the corner and drive and we didn’t deal with that particularly well,’ he said.
‘It was a tough day at the office.’
The side that was flying high on a ten-game winning streak and perched atop the New Zealand conference is now looking to the drawing board after last night’s 24-12 loss to the Brumbies in Canberra. They are guaranteed playoff qualification but now face pressure from the rising Chiefs for a home quarterfinal.
That could prove material given the impracticality of the Super Rugby seeding process, which sees the fourth (Hurricanes) and fifth (Chiefs) seeds placed against each other, despite both having more wins and competition points than the second and third seeds.
Home ground advantage in that match is important, given how tough it is to win on the road in Kiwi derbies. The Hurricanes three-game skid has, in part, been because of this element. A trip to Christchurch to face the Crusaders was a wet weather nightmare and a visit to Dunedin against the high-octane Highlanders was too tall of an ask on the fast surface of Forsyth Barr.
The team’s ten-game winning streak was built on home soil, as they put away the Crusaders, Highlanders and Chiefs in convincing fashion. In fact, the Hurricanes are undefeated at home this season going 7-0, while on the road they are 3-4.
‘I’m sure if we look at the attitude, skills and the decisions it will be a combination of those three things but we just have to find some fire again,’ Boyd suggested as reasons for the form slump.
The return of internationals Brad Shields, Beauden Barrett and Vaea Fifita next week should help, as well as a return to the familiarity of the Caketin for a clash against the Blues before a quarter-final preview against the Chiefs in Hamilton. That away derby will likely determine home ground advantage in the first edition of two back-to-back clashes against the Chiefs.
Captain TJ Perenara offered no excuses for the run of losses, but believes the side can improve by taking care of the ‘controllables’.
‘I just think we’re not playing great footy at the moment. We can control a lot of things out on the field that we aren’t doing well,” he said post-match.
That extends to off the field preparations, as Perenara proposed ‘stripping it back’ to how each individual, positional group and the team as a whole prepared during the week.
They won’t have long to find an answer as destiny calls for a do-or-die finals clash against another high-powered Kiwi team. Whether they play that at home or away will be a big factor in whether this Hurricanes team will challenge for another title.
Comments on RugbyPass
If he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
81 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
81 Go to comments