Horror show from Hurricanes
Hurricanes fans are in for a dreadfully long season if this is what the post-Beauden Barrett and John Plumtree era looks like.
They were the Horrorcanes in Cape Town yesterday, blitzed 27-0 by a side which lost Springboks skipper Siya Kolisi 25 minutes into the seasonopener.
First-year coach Jason Holland, thrust into the job in December after Plumtree joined the new-look All Blacks coaching group, sure is going to earn his money turning around their first shutout in 21 years.
Not since the Wellington-based franchise was blanked by the Reds in 1999 have they failed to chalk up a single point, and it won’t get any easier next weekend against last year’s losing finalists – the Jaguares – in Buenos Aires, where they mauled the Lions 38-8 to kickoff their new campaign.
Barrett isn’t coming back, but fans will be counting down the days until loose forward Ardie Savea recovers from off-season knee surgery.
The Hurricanes were quite simply rotten yesterday.
They couldn’t muster front-foot ball, they coughed the ball up 17 times, including nine in the first half, leaked a whopping 12 penalties, had Vaea Fifita and Billy Proctor yellow carded, and fell off 24 tackles.
If Gareth Evans tossing the ball to nobody and conceding a 40m intercept try didn’t sum up the performance, Jordie Barrett hoofing the ball dead after the Hurricanes were awarded a penalty on the half did.
But take nothing away from the Stormers, a team some have picked to top the South African conference and have a serious tilt at winning the competition.
While the Hurricanes’ shocker surprised, it was the same old Crusaders and Blues to kick off 2020.
The back-to-back-to-back champion Crusaders ran in six tries to three to dispatch the Waratahs 43-25 in Nelson on Saturday night, improving their unbeaten run at home to 32 matches.
Despite being stripped of more than 1000 caps in the aftermath of a host of franchise greats moving on, it was mostly business as usual as they had the upper-hand at scrum time, defended well and ran in some cracking tries.
Their ability to keep their composure, turn up the heat and put the visitors away after their healthy lead was cut to six in the second half, after leaking two tries in the space of four minutes, was as Crusaders as it gets.
As for the Blues, it all looked so good when they led the Chiefs 19-5 at Eden Park on Friday night, only to be outscored 32-10 in the final 40 minutes of the 37-29 stinger.
Chiefs pivot Aaron Cruden, who came on in the second half and slotted a drop goal in his 12-point haul, was sublime in his return to the team he won titles with in 2012 and 2013.
Watching him draw a defender and slip a pass around the corner in the leadup to Solomon Alaimalo’s expertly finished try was vintage Cruden, something fans grew accustomed to before he departed for France in 2017.
As was the case in the Blues’ narrow loss to the Crusaders at the same venue to kickoff the 2019 season, when Harry Plummer missed a series of crucial kicks, pivot Stephen Perofeta shanked three shots off the tee in their latest defeat.
Outside the Hurricanes’ stinker, the biggest shock of the opening round was the Sunwolves kicking off their lengthy farewell tour with an entertaining 36-27 win against the Rebels in Fukuoka.
It came with the inevitable calls for Sanzaar to go back on their decision to boot them from the competition at the end of the season. Forget it.
The Rebels, favourites among many to top the Australian conference this year, must now head to Canberra to tackle the Brumbies, who turned around a 7-17 halftime deficit to tip up the Reds 27-24.
Anyone who tuned into the Sharks’ 23-15 win against the Bulls in Durban on Saturday morning must have thought they’d been put in a time machine and sucked back to 2007.
After all, there was 35-year-old first-five Morne Steyn was back running the cutter. He kicked all 15 points (four penalties and a drop goal) in the eightpoint defeat.