Aisle be Back: Hurricanes v Brumbies Quarter-final

• By Kevin McCarthy 

If this was a movie of course it’s 2023 redux. Yep the sequel.

The Hurricanes are again travelling to Canberra for a quarterfinal with hope in their hearts and trusting that they don’t carry too much baggage from last season.

You’ll recall of course that in 2022 the Hurricanes put up a commendable but losing 35-25 effort in the Australian capital.

It  was a game where they were in it for about 50 minutes and then pretty much blew apart. It being a quarterfinal of course that was all she wrote.

I must say that I don’t have huge confidence there won’t be the same story this time.

However, this isn’t the same side – and there is the accompanying thought that when the Brumbies came to Wellington earlier this year, while the score was close on paper they did not look particularly threatening.

The other comforting thought of course is that terrific 40 minutes on Saturday. It’s hard to believe that they could actually roll over the top of the Crusaders and nail a very meritorious victory. As Brayden Iose said in the quote of the week, he peeled off that late scrum and just thought, RUN.

I guess if the season ends in Canberra at least the Hurricanes can always have that pleasant thought that they took the scalp of the Crusaders – even though no doubt that team will progress further in all likelihood if not all the way.

That’s really the niggling thing for fans. It’s all very well constantly turning up in the top four, top five, top six – but that is only the  cusp of really threatening to take a title.

But then to always be spurned at the altar starts to wear after a while.

So, in an ideal world we need to see the Hurricanes win and set themselves up in all probability with the mother of all challenges which would be the Chiefs in Hamilton.

The other cliché that gets trotted out about this time around the Hurricanes is that they’re  the team an opposition side would least like to face.

That’s kind of double edged. Really what you’re saying is who knows what Hurricanes we will see.

However, as  Canes fans you all know it’s part of the deal – part of the crazy ride.

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The Hurricanes fan page on Facebook is something I keep an eye on  – not obsessively, after all some of it is whinging about referees, or particular players, or pet peeves.

But there was an interesting post this week from a fan who was asking others exactly what the point was of being a member.

And they didn’t want to frame it in terms of well what do you get in going to the game.

This is more about what do you physically get.

His verdict was not much, and it was slowly diminishing .

He made some fairly valid points and it’s well worth catching up with it just to see how people react to that.

I do hope the  Hurricanes franchise keeps an eye on that sort of feedback.

It’s a very valuable question they need to ask themselves all the time – otherwise people are just going to be walking up on the day.

Which is OK, but there’s a risk over time that if people fall out of the habit of going as members then they eventually fall out of the habit of going at all.

Incidentally this week an email this week from the Canes asking for people to fill out the members survey. I’ll get onto that, and if you’re a member, so should you.