Super Rugby title is going to Wellington

Get out the yellow and black bunting. Book the engraver. Put the drinks on ice. The Super Rugby title is coming to Wellington.

By hitting a vein of sensational form at the business end of the competition, the Hurricanes won the right to play the final at home, and they won it the fair, hard way, by beating other New Zealand teams.

In the disjointed, weird world of Super Rugby schedules, we know one thing for sure about next weekend. Whatever side the Canes face, whether it’s the Lions or the Highlanders, it’ll be a team that will arrive in New Zealand with the dry mouths, bemused expressions, and dysfunctional body clocks that jetting through a 10 hour time zone from South Africa produces. Not that the Hurricanes need a helping hand.

Proving that jerseys don’t have DNA this year’s model Canes showed none of the flakiness that has haunted them in years past. Forget the nerves that saw them stumble at home against the Highlanders last year, or fall in the fog in Christchurch in ‘06. This is a side that dares, but not in a mad headed, foolishly optimistic way.

The pressure of playing knockout rugby changes everything. Ask the devastated All Blacks of 2007, or 1999.

You can freeze, as those All Black teams did, or, as epitomised by Beauden Barrett for two brilliant weeks in a row, you can elevate your game.

Barrett comes to the park with natural gifts. He’s unusual for an inside back in that he’s not only electric over the first five metres, but he can hold that pace like a wing.

When Barrett set off on the run that led to Willis Halaholo’s try in the sixth minute that was James Lowe, no slouch since his days as a sprint champion at Nelson College, gritting his teeth, but making little ground on the flying No 10.

So when Barrett snapped up an intercept pass from a devastated Sam Cane, with an open field ahead, the try not long before halftime was as inevitable as the sun rising this morning.

Wayne Smith has said, quite rightly, that Barnett is the world’s best impact test player off the bench. He may also be the best first-five in the world. And the Canes needed all of his brilliance, as well as the grit of Victor Vito, the volcanic explosiveness of Ardie Savea, and the relentless energy of TJ Perenara, to prevail against the Chiefs.

You don’t easily match the power of Brodie Retallick when he runs the ball or dampen Sam Cane’s relentlessness or rattle Aaron Cruden but there was a belief in the Canes camp that, in the past, has been shaken to the point of evaporating.

That’s helped by the fact that as well as a superstar in Barrett, the Canes have found in young locks Michael Fatialofa and Vaea Fafita men who do the hard, nasty work at the breakdowns but still have the energy to make shuddering tackles and potent attacking runs.

Loyal Canes fans have been disappointed many times. But this year it’d be amazing if their faith wasn’t finally fully rewarded.