Hurricanes to play smart
John Plumtree can’t promise the Hurricanes will beat the Crusaders on Saturday. But they’ll certainly box a bit cleverer than the last time the teams met.
Two months ago the Crusaders beat the Hurricanes 20-12 in Christchurch. It’s a scoreline that doesn’t do justice to the extent of the Crusaders’ physical domination.
This time around air miles is among the things at stake. Both teams are off to the Super Rugby quarterfinals, with the Hurricanes eyeing up two destinations. Win on Saturday and they’ll be off to play the Brumbies in Canberra. Lose and it’s the Stormers in Cape Town.
There’s no doubt which journey the Hurricanes believe gives them the greatest chance of retaining the title, making Saturday’s result at Westpac Stadium rather important.
‘‘We were probably a little bit naive with our tactics [in the last Crusaders clash],’’ Plumtree said.
‘‘The ground was really slippery and the ball was wet [and] we probably played wrong that night. We tried to play from all areas of the park, which probably wasn’t over-intelligent, so we’ll have to play a little bit more to what the conditions are on the night.
‘‘Obviously there’ll be a big onus on our pack to step up [as well], because we know how good their pack is and we want to give our backs some good ball and we want to get some goforward and get our game going.
‘‘But we have to play smart as well and be disciplined.’’
This time last year the Hurricanes went to Christchurch and beat the Crusaders 35-10, thanks to one of the more clinical performances you could hope to see. There’s been the odd personnel change in the interim but, essentially, we’re talking about the same teams.
As Plumtree said, the Hurricanes’ forwards will need to compete this Saturday and allow team-mates such as second five-eighth Ngani Laumape to do their thing. Trying to go around the Crusaders isn’t the simplest task so going through them, as Laumape is adept at doing, might be a useful option.
If he can bust the line then there aren’t many backpedalling defences that can contain players such as Beauden and Jordie Barrett, Nehe Milner-skudder and Julian Savea.
Beauden Barrett had yesterday off, but the rest of the Hurricanes’ All Blacks contingent – Jordie Barrett, TJ Perenara, Julian and Ardie Savea and Vaea Fifita – were on deck and everyone’s available for selection on Saturday.
Hooker Dane Coles isn’t playing against the Crusaders but won’t be far away after that. All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen said Coles wouldn’t be fit until the Super Rugby semifinals – should the Hurricanes make it that far – but Plumtree indicated the skipper might be back sooner.
Asked if Coles could play in next week’s quarterfinal Plumtree said ‘‘ah, unsure about that. We’ll get through this week and you can ask me that question next week’’.