Bad break for Hurricanes
Just when the Hurricanes looked to be building early-season momentum, they have to take a week off.
Ben Lam’s two tries in the first 11 minutes of the second half against the Sharks at Sky Stadium on Saturday night propelled them to a 38-22 win.
It followed a stunning 26-23 Super Rugby comeback win over the Jaguares in Buenos Aires the week before as they well and truly put the shock 27-0 drubbing at the hands of the Stormers in week one behind them.
However, their progress will be stunted somewhat by having the first of their two byes this weekend.
They then play the Sunwolves in Napier on February 29 to kick off a run of eight matches in a row, five of which will be New Zealand derbies.
Hurricanes coach Jason Holland had a bob each way when asked whether he felt the bye had come at a good time or not.
‘‘You never really know I suppose. We could’ve gone another couple of weeks, we’re just building a bit of momentum, but by the same token, it’s been a big few weeks and we got a few dings [on Saturday] which could take a couple of weeks.
‘‘We’ll regroup and have a few days off. We’ve got a big block coming up. We’ve got eight games, so it’s important we use this bye week really well.’’
The dings were delivered to prop Fraser Armstrong, flanker Gareth Evans and lock Scott Scrafton. The latter two were head injuries, but both were able to play on.
Loose forward Reed Prinsep was a late scratching, but his injury also wasn’t expected to be major and he was in attendance on Saturday night.
Any significant injuries in the pack would be cause for concern, given how well they have played across the first three weeks against big, physical South African and Argentine packs.
Holland said the form of the forwards gave them plenty of attacking options.
‘‘We had a good platform. The maul was outstanding. It’s great when you get that, you can grow your game and be attacking.
‘‘You can put a bit of doubt in the mind when you can maul and come off the maul and be dominant
at scrums. We need to keep that strength going.’’
While Holland was impressed with his side’s two wins, he did issue a few words of caution for anyone ready to label them title contenders just yet.
‘‘There’s so much in our game that is going pretty well and we want to get it to another level.
‘‘Right across the board, everything we’re doing is at a pretty good level, but we need to grow that to make sure we’re contenders come June and July.’’
What Holland couldn’t fault was his side’s effort across three challenging weeks of travel and sweltering training conditions in Africa and South America.
‘‘The effort has been unbelievable over the last few weeks, which has got us over the line for those two wins.
‘‘We need to go on that upward trend and keep getting bits of our game a little bit better, but I can’t fault the effort and getting those two wins has set us up to kick on after the bye.’’
SAME OLD BLUES
‘‘We could’ve gone another couple of weeks, we’re just building a bit of momentum, but by the same token, it’s been a big few weeks.’’
Hurricanes coach Jason Holland on his team’s impending bye