Hurricanes deserve place in Super final

The Hurricanes are on the brink of their first Super Rugby title, their success against the Chiefs in Wellington pitting them against a Lions team who might push them at times but almost certainly won’t have what it takes.

Anyone who watched the Hurricanes’ beat the Chiefs would agree that the better team won. The Hurricanes were easily the more clinical team — the statistics back that up. The Chiefs had more ball, more territory and more time inside the opposition’s 22. Dave Rennie’s men also made more errors — 22 — and gave up more than double the penalties (12-5 by our count at Sky).

They didn’t have discipline with the ball either. They’ve been to finals before and know these big games are won on discipline and composure and grasping their opportunities.

The Hurricanes are the best attacking team in the competition, according to the stats, and 55 per cent of their tries come from first phase. They are lethal when they get a sniff, and the way they can bounce from defence to attack — flipping the game on its head — shows they deserve to be in the final.

The one thing the Chiefs didn’t cope with was the Hurricanes’ line speed on defence. I’m not questioning Rennie, because I have the utmost respect for him and his staff, but his team’s attack looked lost at times.

They would have seen in the past month the defensive pressure the Hurricanes have put on teams, but the Chiefs tried to go around it, throwing passes over top to the outside where the space was. But to find that space you have to first go through the defence. They were flustered, didn’t adapt and didn’t handle it at all well.

The Lions made a catastrophic mistake in not sending their best team to Argentina to play the Jaguares, thus risking their place on top of the table. Rugby at this level is about week-to-week-to-week and it’s naive to think you can rest 22 players and feel that’s the only way to get to your end-game. Sport is about coping with adversity and embracing the challenge, whereas they said ‘‘too hard’’.

They had the perfect opportunity to top the ladder and host the final, and they nearly did it with a C team. Had they hosted the showpiece at the formidable Ellis Park, they could have been the first South African team to win the title since the Bulls in 2010.

They deserved their win over the Highlanders. They are very good from numbers 1-23 and put together an excellent performance, but I don’t think they can come to New Zealand and beat the Hurricanes. They won’t handle the New Zealand conditions and they lack finals experience.

They will cause problems but their biggest opportunity to win a final was in Johannesburg.