You are here
Home > Hurricanes > Aisle be Back: Hurricanes v Force

Aisle be Back: Hurricanes v Force

  • By Kevin McCarthy

I’m having some elective surgery today. Will go well I am sure.

Then again, I might wake up 28 days from now, and there’s a zombie apocalypse, and no-one can tell me how Super Rugby went. Life wouldn’t be worth living.

Or I wake up 28 days from now, and there’s no zombie apocalypse, but everyone from Canterbury is telling me how well Super Rugby went. Life wouldn’t be worth living.

Or perhaps the Hurricanes produce an amazing run in the quarters, semi and final, all on the road, and clinch the title. Then I know I am dead and went to heaven.

I suspect as probably most of you do, that the Canes will dip out somewhere before the finals. Home advantage must count along the line.

I’m picking we’ll first run the risk of that in Hamilton, as surely the Chiefs won’t blow up at this stage and drop their home quarterfinal chance.

I wouldn’t say a trip to Waikato is at all mission impossible. After that though, I can’t see anything other than a superhuman effort taking the team further.

Which would be a fair reflection of the season, and to be honest, 4th or 5th would be a result most of us would have taken at the start of the year.

The loss to Moana Pasifika of course is the still perplexing reason the Canes aren’t playing to lock in a home quarter this weekend. Remember that if you don’t think every game counts.

Then again, there is a very Canesian bent to trying to tilt at three windmills to win the title. Certainly, we’re not the team that anyone would relish coming to visit them. There’s certainly enough elan and firepower to unsettle anyone if they are not on their game, and a few star players to lead the way.

The season has been punctuated with Jekyll and Hyde stuff, usually within the same game. Indeed, there are very few matches where the result was clear until the last few minutes, or even seconds. The Hurricanes have certainly been much watch material at those times – if also, hard to watch.

Realistically, finals time will expose a few of the same fault lines – adequacy only in the forwards, and a tendency to let teams back into the match. If they do go further, it will be a very good year for what is still a very young team.

As for this weekend, obviously there should be no buttoning off. The team will play knowing whether the Chiefs have won or lost – but any last-minute meltdown in Perth would put them at risk of sliding into the murky waters of 6th or 7th, and treacherous territory playing away against the top sides.

Here is the Hurricanes team for this weekend’s game – a 12.00am kick-off – or 11.59pm as the graphic states:

+++++

The Hurricanes U20s had a disappointing loss to the Chiefs in their second outing of their tournament in Taupo this Wednesday.

The scoreboard from that game was: Chiefs 58 (Taha Kamera 2, Cody Nordstrom, Veveni Lasaqa, Sam Tuifua, Thor Manase, Curtis Palmer, Quinnlan Tupou, Taine Kolosi tries; Tevita Ofa 5 con, Kamera pen) Hurricanes 26 (Cooper Flanders, Matt Monaghan, Chicago Doyle, Harry Godfrey tries; Godfrey 3 con) HT: 39-12

By all accounts, Harry Godfrey played well from fullback, while Sione Halalilo and Logan Love came off the bench and tried hard in what was a 30-point defeat.

The Barbarians (an U21 selection) beat the Crusaders 17-15, while the Highlanders beat the Blues 40-29.

The tournament continues tomorrow for day three, with the Hurricanes U20s playing…well we are not sure as we couldn’t easily find a draw. Such is the non-promotion of this tournament.

Similar Articles

Leave a Reply

Top