Aisle be Back: Hurricanes v Fijian Drua tonight

Josh Moorby starts at fulback and TJ Perenara at halfback in tonight’s match in Fiji. 

• By Kevin McCarthy

These are difficult times to be a Hurricanes supporter.

I don’t mean that in the obvious sense because as we all know the team couldn’t be doing better with an unbeaten record and topping the table at just over the halfway point.

No, I mean difficult in the sense that to be a Hurricane fan is to carry a lot of baggage.

You should know what I mean. With just one title the history of the side has been to squander a long  lineage if potential.

How often have we looked at the side on paper and thought this year, surely this year. Some very good players, greats even,  have filled the ranks in that time and won nothing.

I tend to think of the current season in terms of what sort of fan are you and maybe there are  three categories.

One is the eternal optimist who is already calling it – if they didn’t call it from the start of the season – as a locked in title. You’ve possibly been there yourself; we all have. That’s despite of course experience to the contrary.

If you think about the one we actually did win in 2016, while the winning in in the finals footy stage was pretty straightforward, it took some freakish circumstances for the Hurricanes to actually be topping the table and achieving home status all the way through.

And then 2015 of course well you all know what happened then.

But if you know an over-exuberant type, don’t rain on their parade; after all it’s their parade and why shouldn’t they enjoy the ride under their own special weather system.

And then there’s the other extreme of the spectrum – the eternal pessimist. Even when the evidence is there that this is indeed a very promising side that has been maturing over three or four seasons and it’s now hitting its straps.

The niggling thought remains that somewhere along the way they’ll be tripped up either by themselves or by a less talented team but a more ruthless one. This is the sort of person who has already played through a scenario in which the Hurricanes finish top and have to play the Crusaders who finish in eighth. With a particularly tragic and grisly outcome.

Finally, is the category that I’d put myself in. That’s the one where you hear all the praise swirling around, you’re enjoying the games as they unfold and you’ve got a sneaking suspicion that well maybe, maybe this is the year.

But whatever comes you’re not gonna be talking too loudly and big upping the team. You know there will be plenty of jubilation to come if only you can wait. What you definitely don’t want to do is personally be any sort of jinx. It’s a hard line to walk but honestly I think it’s the right one.

You don’t need telling that the next two games are possibly decisive in determining the remaining trajectory of the Hurricanes. A clear target now must be to top the league off such a good foundation and indeed it will be extremely disappointing if they can’t do so. But we have the Drua tonight in their fortress and then the Brumbies a week from now also in their fortress.

Two wins on the road and then it may be okay, just a little bit, to start thinking yeah maybe this year this year.

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Good luck to you if you can follow what’s going on in New Zealand rugby governance.

I certainly can’t.

I know it’s probably important and I should invest some time to understand things, but honestly I just want it to end.

That will probably entail some major egos swallowing a few dead rats. Yep, not a reason to have great optimism.

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The Hurricanes team to take on the Fijian Drua on Friday 19 April at 7:05pm 

1.         Tevita Mafileo
2.         James O’Reilly
3.         Pasilio Tosi
4.         Ben Grant*
5.         Isaia Walker-Leawere
6.         Brad Shields (Captain)
7.         Du’Plessis Kirifi
8.         Devan Flanders
9.         TJ Perenara
10.      Aidan Morgan
11.      Salesi Rayasi
12.      Jordie Barrett
13.      Billy Proctor
14.      Kini Naholo
15.      Josh Moorby
16.      Asafo Aumua
17.      Xavier Numia
18.      Siale Lauaki*
19.      Caleb Delany
20.      Peter Lakai
21.      Richard Judd
22.      Ruben Love
23.      Bailyn Sullivan

Siale Lauaki on debut off the bench.