Boyd happy with improvement
The test’s no less stern without Richie Mo’unga.
The Crusaders have lost their star first five-eighth for an indefinite period, after his jaw was broken in Saturday’s win over the Stormers, but they’ve tended to give the Hurricanes more problems in the forwards.
The two favourites for the New Zealand Conference title now meet in Wellington on Saturday, where the home side’s pack will again need to front.
‘‘Mitchell Hunt’s a good footballer and Mike Delany’s very experienced so while Richie’s good for them, they’ve got two able replacements,’’ Hurricanes head coach Chris Boyd said.
‘‘They bring slightly different things to the game and I’d be interested to see which one they pick but, at the end of the day, we’ll just plan accordingly.
‘‘It’ll be business as usual. We’ve had a look at the last couple of Crusaders games and there’s plenty in there that you know’s coming at you, that’s for sure.’’
The Hurricanes will approach Saturday’s game on the back of a mixed preparation. On paper, Sunday’s 34-9 win over the Jaguares in Buenos Aires looks highly commendable.
But the set pieces weren’t all that solid and little care was taken with possession.
The Crusaders’ game is built on punishing opposition errors and they’ll run up a cricket score if the Hurricanes offer up as much ball as they did at Estadio Jose Amalfitani.
To the Hurricanes’ credit, they defended stoutly against the Jaguares and will take some justified confidence from that.
That theme of good and bad was mirrored by the mood Boyd watched proceedings in.
‘‘There was little patches of good footy and then there was some patches in between that weren’t so great. It was a long way from a complete performance – a long, long way – but I think it was a step in the right direction after a poor performance last week.’’
And that context is important. After the previous Sunday’s 21-19 loss to the Bulls in Pretoria, the Hurricanes had a very long haul to Buenos Aires.
That effects sleep and training and will be a factor this week too.
The team left Buenos Aires promptly, via a direct flight to Auckland, and are due back in Wellington on Monday morning. They’ll train lightly on Tuesday, have Wednesday off and then try to crank things up on Thursday.
Tight forwards such as Sam Lousi and Chris Eves will be feeling a bit tender after big workloads against the Jaguares. The backs had a slightly less taxing time and it was good to see Jordie and Beauden Barrett get through significant minutes, and for second five-eighth Ngani Laumape to continue his strong start to the season.
Wing Ben Lam, Laumape, Matt Proctor – who’d shifted to fullback by then – and replacement centre Vince Aso all scored tries, with loose forward Blade Thomson coming off the bench to bag the final five-pointer.
The Jaguares were competitive up front but lacked the quality to extend the Hurricanes’ defence.