Perenara demands more from classy Hurricanes
Scores of 83-17 and 71-6 look like big, impressive victories but they hardly wow TJ Perenara.
It’s the little things that are more likely to win Hurricanes vicecaptain’s approval.
While fans enthuse over some of the sublime football the defending Super Rugby champions have played to put 80 points on the Sunwolves in Tokyo and now 71 against the Rebels at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium, Perenara gains greater satisfaction from seeing the effort plays and one-percenters.
Doing their micro-skills well won’t guarantee the Hurricanes victories this year ‘‘but you give yourself a better chance,’’ Perenara said after yesterday’s dismantling of the Rebels.
It’s hardly a newsflash to say the Hurricanes can play. They have talent to burn, particularly in the backline. But success at this level is about more than just ability.
‘‘A lot of the time you only get that satisfaction if the scoreline falls in your favour. What we’re trying to drive in our environment is trying to win small moments and getting excited about that stuff,’’ said Perenara.
‘‘So we know that at the end of the day we get judged on whether we come off the field with more points than the other team. But in our circle we want to win a ruck, we want to win a scrum, we want to win a lineout. So it’s about having that mindset to want to win each moment in a game and continue to do that for the duration of the season and duration of the game.’’
It’s a moot point whether it’s better to be in the Chiefs’ boat right now or the Hurricanes’. They’ve both begun the season with maximum points from their two games and now meet in Hamilton
Defence is something we want to pride ourselves on.’ TJ Perenara
on Friday. The Chiefs have done it tough, the Hurricanes haven’t.
For now you can only judge the Hurricanes on what they’ve done. With the ball, they’ve scored some superb tries. Against the Rebels there were 11 of them, with Nehe Milner-Skudder bagging a hat-trick in his return to this level, to go with two each for Vince Aso and Ngani Laumape and others from Matt Proctor, Ardie Savea, Julian Savea and Reed Prinsep.
Perhaps the best moment of the match came on defence, though, and from something of an unlikely source. Wing Julian Savea is a potent attacking force but can look a little uncertain on defence. There was no doubting the task at hand on this occasion, though, when the Rebels’ rugby league convert Marika Koroibete raced down the right-hand touchline.
Koroibete is a genuine speedster and Savea not only kept pace but barrelled the Fijian into touch a metre from the corner flag. Savea’s effort on Koroibete represented the type of win Perenara is talking about.
‘‘It makes me happy that they didn’t score against us. I’m still not happy that we got scored on last week,’’ Perenara said.
‘‘Defence is something we want to pride ourselves on, it’s something we put a lot of effort into and it’s reality; you limit them scoring, you limit the points that you have to score.’’