Aisle be Back: Hurricanes v Drua in Napier

Cam Roigard gets his pass away for the Hurricanes against the Blues in their pre-season match a fortnight ago.

• By Kevin McCarthy

One and not done. The Hurricanes committed the cardinal sin of losing their first match and missing out on a bonus point while doing so. And against last year’s cellar dwellers, the Crusaders.

I jest of course – this is not 2024, nor are the Crusaders the team of last year, when even so, the Hurricanes struggled to put them away.

And if you are overly fretting, remember the 2016 year of miracles that opened with a giant down trou away against the Brumbies. See, it all worked out fine in the end.

Clearly not many teams will walk away from Christchurch with cheap points this year, although we’ll get a better gauge on that in round two’s big clash against the Chiefs.

The latter hit the ground well at Eden Park, never really giving a sluggish Blues outfit a chance.

Elsewhere, I think, as most would agree, this was one of the best opening rounds in a long time – with plenty of good tries and highly competitive matchups – none more so that the closer in Perth, where Moana Pasifika looked for all manner the winners, until suddenly they weren’t.

Close competition is essential to keep up interest, but it is too early to see whether that will remain, the norm would be for the better sides to start asserting themselves and producing more and more blowouts.

At this stage however, every team will fancy their chances to win in round 2 – with the Blues and the Hurricanes aching to avoid a dreaded two and zip start to the season.

I guess we all watched Moana Pasifika closely at the weekend – to see if the Ardie factor was in play. I thought so- but wisely he did not try to do everything himself, but in typical fashion chose his interventions carefully.

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I hope you enjoyed fantasy footie’s debut in round one. I had some reservations about the scoring and such but am delighted to report I am currently ranked fourth. Hard to believe, and down to some genius analysis.  Admittedly, that’s fourth out of our private league, which has six members.

In the wider league table, I am somewhere around the mid-30-thousands, and poised to be a major mover in round two.

I was among the half the fantasy players who forgot to pick D Mac. What were we thinking?!

Looking at it dispassionately, it certainly lifted my interest in games I might not have followed too closely otherwise. If you’ve got a Western Force flanker, hey, you care that little bit more bout the Force.

As well, the score sheet updates in near real time, meaning your league table can see a lot of shifts within a round, or a match. Combine that with a Whats App group and it can be trash talking heaven.

At the other end, no doubt the marketeers are delighted to have another way to measure “engagement”, which is sales speak for giving a fat rat’s.

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The Hurricanes team to play the Drua is:

1. Xavier Numia
2. Jacob Devery
3. Tevita Mafileo
4. Caleb Delany
5. Hugo Plummer
6. Brad Shields (Co Captain)
7. Du’Plessis Kirifi (Co Captain)
8. Brayden Iose
9. Cam Roigard
10. Harry Godfrey
11. Kini Naholo
12. Peter Umaga-Jensen
13. Bailyn Sullivan
14. Fatafehi Fineanganofo
15. Callum Harkin

Impact
16. Raymond Tuputupu
17. Pouri Rakete-Stones
18. Pasilio Tosi
19. Will Tucker (Potential Debut)
20. Peter Lakai
21. Ereatara Enari
22. Riley Hohepa
23. Ngatungane Punivai

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The Hurricanes Poua start their competition season next weekend.

Tomorrow they tune up for that with a pre-season fixture against the South Island Matatu at NZCIS at noon.

Huddy Sports with the Live Stream – link at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ime5z6CrC4