’Canes not so fierce this time but still make it 10 straight wins

THE Wellington Hurricanes struggled to get their high octane attack going but still had just enough to overcome an obdurate Queensland Reds side 38-34 yesterday and notch up their 10th straight Super Rugby victory.

Winger Ben Lam nabbed his 13th and 14th tries of the campaign to stand one shy of a Super Rugby record and there were also scores from number eight Blade Thomson, lock Sam Lousi and flyhalf Beauden Barrett, who added 13 points with the boot.

The Reds, humbled 63-28 by the Sunwolves last week, brought a physicality to the contest that would have made coach Brad Thorn proud but were unable to prevent Australia’s winless streak against New Zealand opposition from reaching 40 matches.

Tries from winger Filipo Daugunu and hooker Taniela Tupou helped them to a 20-14 lead after 26 minutes with the other winger, Jordan Petaia, and centre Samu Kerevi crossing after the break to keep the visitors in the match for the full 80 minutes.

“There’s a reason why they are the best team in the comp at the moment,” Reds skipper Scott Higginbotham said in a post-match interview. “But it was a huge display of character from our boys after last week’s disappointment.”

The win put the Hurricanes back on top of the competition standings by three points pending the Canterbury Crusaders’ match today with the two most recent champions scheduled to meet in Christchurch next week.

The 2016 champions might have expected an easier ride from a Reds side that had only won four of their 11 matches this season and it looked to be going to plan when Barrett cantered over the line in the seventh minute. Lam smashed through a couple of defenders with the ball in one hand to grab the first of his brace seven minutes later and the Reds were only able to stay in touch through two Jono Lance penalties.

Tupou, nicknamed the Tongan Thor, bulldozed his way through three defenders for a try in the 21st minute, however, and when Kerevi cut through the midfield and found Daugunu on his outside five minutes later, the Reds were in front. Thomson pirouetted over the line to give the Hurricanes back the lead before the break and when Lam made amends for dropping the ball with the line at his mercy with his second try after 49 minutes, the home side were 31-20 to the good.

Another tackler-scattering charge from Tupou after 53 minutes sent debutant teenager Petaia in for a third Reds try and even Lousi’s score was not enough to kill off the visitors, Kerevi’s reply making for a tense finish.

● Former Wallabies coach Alan Jones believes Australian rugby has to emulate New Zealand’s centralised approach to the game over the last decade if it is to dig itself out of what he characterised as a “crisis” in the sport.

Jones issued the call to arms against the background of Australia’s Super Rugby teams enduring this 40-match winless streak against New Zealand sides, crowds plummeting and reports of other football codes attacking rugby’s grassroots.

The 75-year-old, who led the Wallabies on their grand slam tour of Europe in 1984, said Australia needed to face their “demons” as New Zealand did after a quarter-final exit at the 2007 World Cup.

“Their predicament may not have been as grave as ours is today, but in the estimate of those in New Zealand who love their rugby, it was as bad as it could get,” Jones, now a radio talk-show host, said.

“New Zealand Rugby gathered together everyone who mattered (and) they agreed to completely reorder and restructure the management and control of New Zealand rugby’s most vital assets – the players and the coaches and other support personnel.”

Back- to- back World Cup triumphs in 2011 and 2015 as well as Super Rugby titles for four of the five NZ Super Rugby franchises have followed, making it a blueprint that Australia would be foolish not to follow, Jones said. – Reuters