Hurricanes v Chiefs Final Stat Attack

• By Peter Marriott

Final v Chiefs: Won 60-5

After waiting for nine years and 318 days the Hurricanes finally secured their second Super Rugby title.

It was the Hurricanes fourth Final and the Chiefs eighth, including the last four seasons in a row, all of which they have lost.

The Hurricanes 60 points against the Chiefs is not the highest score in a Super Rugby Final: the Bulls hold that record. In 2009 they beat the Chiefs 61-17 at Pretoria with the margin of victory being a record 44 points.

The Hurricanes score might be the second best in a Final but their winning margin of 55 points is a new record.

Just two teams have registered fewer points than the Chiefs in a Final. They are the Lions (lost 3-20 against the Hurricanes at Wellington in 2026) and the Jaguares who lost 3-19 against the Crusaders at Christchurch in 2019.

The Hurricanes 60 points are the most conceded by the Chiefs since they beat (yes) the Lions 72-65 at Johannesburg in 2010.

The Hurricanes 60 points is the highest score by a New Zealand side against the Chiefs and the three which are higher were all scored by South African sides. The Hurricanes former highest score against the Chiefs was 47 points in their 47-19 win at Wellington in 2019.

The Chiefs five points is their lowest score in any match since losing 0-25 against the Blues at Hamilton in 2022.

The Hurricanes have now scored 50 or more points in a match 32 times including a record-extending eight times in 2026.

Three of those occasions occurred in the Finals: they won 66-12 in the Qualifying Final against the Brumbies, won 51-21 in the Semi-Final against the Blues and of course they won 60-5 in the Final against the Chiefs. That equates to an average of 59 points scored per game whilst conceding just 12.7 points a game.

The Hurricanes scored nine tries in each of those matches.

The Chiefs conceded a record nine tries in a match for the third time. The first two occasions were against the  Lions at Johannesburg in 2010 and against the Crusaders at Christchurch in 2019.

The Hurricanes nine tries took their total against the Chiefs to 154: they have scored 156 against the  Highlanders and 155 against the Blues.

Josh Moorby’s second try was the Hurricanes 150th against the Chiefs.

The Hurricanes have also scored 101 tries against the Chiefs at home venues. Ruben Love’s second try was the 100th.

The Hurricanes and Chiefs have met 49 times in Super Rugby. The Hurricanes have 25 wins to the Chiefs 22. There have been two drawn matches.

The Chiefs won 22-17 at Hamilton in regular play earlier in the season when the match went to Golden Point. The Hurricanes have hosted the Chiefs 27 times (25 times at the Stadium and once at Palmerston North and New Plymouth). The home side has won 17 times and the Chiefs 10 times.

The Hurricanes finished the season with a Super Rugby record 113 tries (this beat their previous record of 97 in 2017) and a record 745 points which bettered their previous record of 660, also in 2017.

Josh Moorby opened the scoring for the Hurricanes with a try in the seventh minute. It was the fourth time this year he was the first to score. That took his tally of tries in 2026 to 16 to equal the Super Rugby record for most tries by an individual in a season: the other two record holders were Ben Lam and Fehi Fineanganafo.

Seventeen minutes later Fineanganofo scored his 17th try to become the outright record holder. However, his sole tenure was relatively short-lived because Moorby scored his second try four minutes into the second half. A comparison of how the two players went about scoring their 17 tries is interesting.

Fineanganofo’s scoring sequence went: 2, 1, 0, 0, 3, 3, 1, 0, 4, 1, 0, 1, DNP, DNP, DNP, 0, 1

Moorby’s scoring sequence went: 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 2, 1, 4, DNP, 1, 0, 0, 2, 2

Fehi Fineanganofo has scored 23 tries in 26 matches for the Hurricanes. This was his first against the Chiefs.

Josh Moorby scored two tries in successive matches and now has scored two or more tries in a match nine times. His total in 54 matches for the Hurricanes is 38 which includes four against the Chiefs.

Moorby also made his 50th start: one of them was in jersey #11, 23 in #14 and 26 in #15.

Callum Harkin scored his fifth try in his 25th match. It was his first try against the Chiefs. Harkin’s total number of points in all matches is now exactly 50.

Devan Flanders’ try was his 12th in his 70th match for the Hurricanes. He has scored two against the Chiefs. Jordie Barrett scored his 33rd try in his 124th Super Rugby match. It was his fourth try against the Chiefs and his total points against that side is 105. He brought up 50 points in 2026.

Barrett now has 833 points in all Super Rugby matches, plus the 11 he kicked against the British & Irish Lions in 2017.

Jone Rova’s try took his total in 16 matches for the Hurricanes to five. He had not previously scored a try against the Chiefs.

Ruben Love had his best return in a match scoring 25 points made up of two tries, six conversions and a penalty. It took his total points in 55 matches to 259 and he is the ninth Hurricanes player to reach the 250 point milestone.

Love’s two tries (his second instance of a “pair”) took his total in all matches to 11: they were his first tries against the Chiefs and he now has 42 points against them.

Ruben Love was successful with seven of his 10 attempts at goal. The wind made goal kicking a bit of a lottery to the extent he hit the up-rights three times (one kick went over) and hit the crossbar on another occasion.

Love finished the season as the competition’s top points-scorer with 138 points made up of three tries, 57 conversions and three penalties.

Brad Shields became the first Hurricanes player to win two Super Rugby Finals.

The Hurricanes made just two changes to the starting line-up from that which played the Semi-Final match against the Blues. Both changes were in the forwards.

For the Chiefs their sole points were a try scored in the 75th minute by Naitoa Ah Kuoi. It was his second against the Hurricanes. His first was at Wellington in 2021.

A peculiar thing happened after Ah Kuoi scored his try. Damian McKenzie declined to convert it

Nic Berry was in charge of his 20th match involving the Hurricanes. It was just his second Hurricanes/Chiefs match.

The Chiefs Super Rugby record after 31 years is: played 444, won 253 (57.0%), lost 181 and drawn 10. The Hurricanes have won 257 of their 439 Super Rugby matches at a winning percentage of 58.5. They have lost 175 matches and drawn seven.