Moon boot for Milner-skudder
Let’s start with the physical toll and move on to the emotional battle the Hurricanes lost to the Chiefs.
The fitness of key players such as Nehe Milner-skudder is clearly a worry for fans, but it was between the ears where the team were beaten 26-18 in Hamilton on Friday night.
‘‘He’s going to require some scans on Monday and we’ll find out what that means probably on Monday or Tuesday,’’ Hurricanes head coach Chris Boyd said of the foot Milner-skudder injured.
At first glance it looked like an ankle ligament injury, maybe even a fracture, for the fullback. But the official word is foot.
‘‘As he described it, his leg was pinned and twisted. I think he must’ve been trapped around the ankle and the foot. But he’s in a precautionary moon boot at the moment and you go into a moon boot these days even if you sneeze,’’ said Boyd.
No 8 Blade Thomson dislocated a shoulder in the round-one win over the Sunwolves and the Hurricanes and still waiting for an official diagnosis on that.
‘‘He’s most likely in a position where he’s not going to require surgery. If he doesn’t have surgery, and that’s probably going to be decided early next week, then if his rehab all goes well he might be somewhere like four to eight weeks,’’ Boyd said.
To Friday, then, and a performance the Hurricanes would hardly be proud of. The conditions were a factor, as was the refereeing of Brendon Pickerill. Ultimately, though, the Chiefs played better and smarter than the Hurricanes and with greater control of their tempers.
Pickerill’s contribution didn’t decide the outcome, but it’s worth a mention. Of particular interest to Boyd and his staff was the decision to sinbin flanker Ardie Savea, after a Chiefs maul hit the deck near the Hurricanes’ line.
There was no grey area about the subsequent shoulder charge that earned lock Michael Fatialofa his 10-minute spell.
‘‘Ardie [Savea] was yellowcarded when he was on the top of the pile which - correct me if I’m wrong - basic biomechanics would tell me you’d struggle to pull a maul down if you’re on top of it,’’ said Boyd.
‘‘We conceded two tries when we were short men, which made that difficult. Those yellow cards; while we certainly acknowledge one was ill-discipline, the other was questionable.’’
Boyd felt the Chiefs made a decision to ‘‘play less football’’ than the Hurricanes and the result proved that thinking right. Overall, the mental game at FMG Stadium had been a critical one.
‘‘That whole psychological battle that sits alongside and underneath the physical battle is one you need to control and I thought for parts of time we did very well and for parts of time we didn’t do so well,’’ Boyd said.
‘‘We’ve got, like the Chiefs have got, some naturally combative individuals and it’s always a challenge to know how far back you need to tone that.’’
The Chiefs like to niggle and assert themselves and you don’t want to be too easily baited. Equally, you can’t be some passive pushover.
Between that facet of the game and their frustration at their own performance, and that of the referee, the Hurricanes sold themselves short. But only eight points short, as it turned out, on a night when next-to-nothing went right for them. The Chiefs are a good side, but the Hurricanes aren’t too bad themselves.