Boyd goes in to bat for Lam
Coaches are duty-bound to leap to their players’ defence.
But it was the vehemence with which Chris Boyd went in to bat for Ben Lam that stood out last night.
Rugby’s intelligenstia will tell you Lam’s a liability under the high ball, that he lacks physicality on defence and battles a bit with his catch and pass. But not Boyd.
Especially not after Lam’s hattrick of tries was instrumental in the Hurricanes beating the Lions 28-19 at Westpac Stadium.
‘‘I’m not sure what his deficiencies are, because he works really hard off the ball, he’s a wonderful tryscorer, he’s good in the air, he’s a good defender, he’s physical,’’ Hurricanes coach Boyd said.
‘‘He’s just in a purple patch where all of that’s come together, so if he’s got deficiencies I haven’t seen them.’’
Lam’s Super Rugby’s top tryscorer this season, with 12, combining pace, strength, deft footwork and an expert ability to put the ball down in tight areas.
The Hurricanes have had some pretty fair wings over the years, but few have produced seasons quite like the one Lam’s putting together.
It might be good enough to get him into the All Blacks’ frame, it might not.
But it’s certainly proving handy to the Hurricanes, who might’ve battled to beat the Lions without him. They didn’t create a huge amount last night and were again thankful to see one of their outside backs make sure they didn’t walk away from attacking raids emptyhanded.
‘‘Vince [Aso] has done it for us, Ben’s done it for us, Jules [Savea] in the past has done it for us. We’ve got Nehe [Milner-Skudder], Wes Goosen has done it for us, so we’ve got guys that have an ability to turn half-chances into points, which is critical [given] the way we play the game,’’ said Boyd.
Lam opened the Hurricanes’ scoring, followed by flanker Ardie Savea. They led 14-7 at halftime, before two more Lam tries put them up 28-7.
They went off the boil from there, partly because Chris Eves had to pack in the relatively unfamiliar spot of tighthead prop, which allowed the Lions to turn dominance at scrum time into two late tries.
Regular tighthead prop Ben May had been a late withdrawal, due to illness, along with fullback Jordie Barrett. The fullback rolled an ankle during the team’s mid-afternoon ‘‘primer’’ and was replaced by Milner-Skudder, in his first start of the season. Vince Aso, who’d missed the 23, was given a call three hours before kickoff and told to turn up at Westpac Stadium with his boots.
Those late changes weren’t the reason for the subsequent scrappiness of the team’s performance, but they didn’t help.
‘‘There’s part of that game we’re really happy with and other parts that obviously we need to be better at,’’ Boyd said. ‘‘I thought the patch just after halftime was particularly good and then obviously the last 20 minutes was problematic for us.’’
But they won and now have eight victories in nine starts and trail just the Crusaders, who’ve played an extra game, in the New Zealand conference standings. The Waratahs and Lions still lead the Hurricanes overall, despite inferior records, on the basis of the conference system.