Hurricanes see off Brumbies in ugly encounter

Cranky was the best way to describe Hurricanes head coach Chris Boyd after their Super Rugby quarterfinal win in Canberra last night.

It didn’t last as Boyd joined a teleconference for New Zealand media, that’s not his style. But that doesn’t mean he became any more satisfied with the side’s 35-16 win over the Brumbies.

The Hurricanes won, but not with any real authority, and will head into next week’s semifinal against either the Lions or Sharks wanting to prove they’re better than Friday’s showing suggests.

‘‘We’re pretty grumpy to be honest,’’ Boyd began.

"We thought that’s probably our worst performance out of our last three. We were sloppy and loose and ill-disciplined and inaccurate for the third game in a row, which is a concern for us.

‘‘But at the end of the day we managed to re-correct and refocus and sort out what was important and put out a better second half.

‘‘It’s certainly not perfect and we’re going to have to be better than that, wherever we play next week.’’

The Hurricanes trailed 16-15 at halftime, after conceding soft tries to James Dargaville and Josh Mann-Rea.

They responded with fortuitous five-pointers to Wes Goosen and Jordie Barrett, in between some average work at the breakdown and in the set pieces.

It followed on from the recent clashes against the British and Irish Lions and the Crusaders, in which they were at least able to recover from slow starts to gain a draw and a win.

This time defence and patience won out. The Hurricanes weren’t particularly impressive, but they spent Friday’s second half camped in Brumbies territory and eventually turned territory and possession into points.

Goosen added a second, Jordie Barrett kicked a few goals and TJ Perenara touched down after a trademark Dane Coles dart. Back after four months out, the hooker had a first-half concussion testprompted cameo, before replacing Ricky Riccitelli for good after 50 minutes.

‘‘To be honest I haven’t been that nervous for a while,’’ a happy Coles said afterwards.

Both times he came on and had to immediately throw to lineouts. His work in that department was exemplary, while the dummy, fend and scurry that sent Perenara over was vintage Coles.

‘‘I was happy with the lineout throwing and it’s always nice to get your hands on the pill. Everything that happened in the game – [whether it was a] tackle or scrum or lineout – I was just happy to get my hands in the game and do all the set-piece stuff and just be amongst again.’’

The only sign of rust came when Coles opted to put boot to ball, late in the game.

‘‘Loni [Uhila] is giving me a bit of stick because he reckons he was in the gap. It wasn’t the best kick so I think I’ll stick to running the ball,’’ a chuckling Coles said.

Coles was part of a group of bench forwards, along with Uhila, Chris Eves and Callum Gibbins, who came on and gave the Hurricanes some much-needed momentum. The Brumbies were very willing opponents and it took 70 minutes before the Hurricanes gained any real ascendancy.

They’ll now spend Friday night in Canberra and then head to an airport hotel in Sydney on Saturday, to see where Super Rugby will take them.

A Lions win, in Saturday’s (Sunday NZ Time) all-South Africa quarterfinal, would see the Hurricanes fly out to Johannesburg on Sunday.

Should the Sharks get up, they’ll be on a plane home to host a semifinal.