Canes know they have a target on their backs
As Super Rugby gets set to start this week, Fairfax Media previews the New Zealand teams’ campaigns. Today looks at the Hurricanes.
It won’t be self-satisfaction that stymies the Hurricanes this season. The Super Rugby champions have reported for duty in rare physical shape and with an appetite not to go backwards in 2017.
But in these days of conferences - one of which is a lot more competitive than the others - the chances of a New Zealand side winning a string of titles look increasingly unlikely.
Not because the bodies or minds are unwilling. Just that there’s a limit to how many grand finals you can play in one year.
When you’re on your way to the top, each week’s a stepping stone. When you get there, every opponent is hellbent on dragging you down.
There was only one team the Hurricanes wanted to play in 2016. The Highlanders had beaten them 21-14 in the 2015 decider and captain Dane Coles and company didn’t care where they met again, what the spectacle was like or which individuals emerged as All Blacks’ candidates afterwards; they just wanted to smash them.
Fair to say, then, that they know what’s coming now they’re the champs.
‘‘Obviously we’ve a big target on our backs because we’ve won it. But we just want to do the same thing again and just earn the right and attack it and try to go back-toback,’’ Coles said.
‘‘It’s a hard comp and I’m not the type of person to come out and say we’re going to win it. We’ve got to earn the right and - it’s the old cliche - it’s just week-to-week and making sure we prepare well and things take care of itself.’’
Known for brilliant ballrunners such as Beauden Barrett and Julian and Ardie Savea, the Hurricanes won the 2016 title with defence. But, as Coles suggests, they won’t lift the title again by being defensive.
‘‘Teams are d going to come out and be the best they can be and try and tip us up,’’ said Coles, and they Hurricanes just have to keep rising to that occasion.
That’s hard enough at the best of times, but doubly so when the British and Irish Lions loom so large on the horizon.
The Hurricanes’ defence was outstanding last season. Unheralded players such as Michael Fatialofa, Loni Uhila and Willis Halaholo suddenly became stars and emphasised how cohesive a team the Hurricanes were.
Through it all, though, one man was arguably taking first fiveeighth play to a level that had never been seen before. Beauden Barrett needed a platform to launch his audacious performances off but, boy, didn’t he launch.
It would be asking a huge amount - particularly with the assignment the All Blacks have in front of them - to expect him to play that well again.
And that’s the whole thing in a nutshell, really. In blokes such as Coles and Jeff To’omaga-Allen and Fatialofa and Vaea Fifita - when he’s fit again - and Brad Shields and TJ Perenara and Beauden Barrett, Jordie Barrett, the Savea brothers, Cory Jane, Nehe MilnerSkudder; the Hurricanes have the talent to be champions again.
It’s just that in their new role as the team everyone wants to beat the Hurricanes are just as likely to have played their grand final in May or June, as still be fit and firing when the real decider rolls around on August 5.