Hurricanes won’t drop intensity against Sharks
May 8, 2016 might not be a date that means much to you.
For the Hurricanes - and John Plumtree in particular - it’s a day that will never be forgotten.
Sharks 32 Hurricanes 15 doesn’t begin to tell the story.
Plumtree, proud as punch to be back in Durban for the first time since the end of an almost 20-year playing and coaching association with the Sharks, talked passionately about how much an emphatic Hurricanes performance at Kings Park would mean to him. The Hurricanes had just tamed the Lions 50-17 in Johannesburg and the expectation from everyone, Plumtree included, was for more of the same.
Inept and insipid would sum up what the Hurricanes went on to deliver instead. Not surprising, maybe, when we later learned a handful of players had breached the team curfew in the days before the match.
That one really stung Plumtree and there’s no doubt it’ll be in his thoughts when the Hurricanes host the Sharks at Napier’s Mclean Park on Friday night.
‘‘There’s a personal thing with Plum being there [as assistant or head coach] for eight years. There’s no doubt the Sharks will play their best game of the season against us. They will,’’ Hurricanes head coach Chris Boyd said.
‘‘We need to be very wary of that, so we’ll be taking that game particularly seriously. We’re not prepared to let our guard down at this stage.’’
The Hurricanes are a hungry lot at the moment. Hungry to improve, hungry to win, hungry to contend for the title.
Hungry, even, to show the Rebels up for what they really are.
The Melbourne side might continue to top the Super Rugby standings but, on the back of being beaten 50-19 by the Hurricanes last Friday, that doesn’t mean they’re a remotely elite team.
‘‘They’d conceded a significant number of points at the back end of the first half and back end of the second half [in their previous games] and when we analysed them we made the conclusion that their physical conditioning or their ability to stay in the game for long periods wasn’t there,’’ said Boyd.
‘‘We weren’t happy to be down 19-8 but the message that was coming back from the guys [running on water bottles] was that everyone was calm, everyone was saying the right things, they knew what was important.
‘‘So the really pleasing thing for me was there was no panic, there was no lack of control. We just got about things as we needed to do and, as we thought it might if we stayed in the game for long periods of time, then the opportunities would come to us.’’
Wing Ben Lam scored four tries, with first five-eighth Beauden Barrett and No.8 Gareth Evans bagging the others, as the Hurricanes ran up 42 unanswered points.
‘‘That’s the first derby between Australia and New Zealand sides [this season] and we were particularly keen not to be the first Kiwi side in two years to lose to an Australian side,’’ Boyd said.
Staying ‘‘fit and healthy’’ was just as important to Boyd, who indicated Ardie Savea (ribs) and Matt Proctor (sternum) might not be fit enough to return from the injuries they sustained against the Highlanders.
‘‘If they are, that’s great. If they’re not, then life goes on.’’