Hurricanes flying high
Clark Laidlaw might be remaining grounded, but his impressive-looking Hurricanes plane is revving up for take-off.
With Saturday night’s win over the Chiefs seeing them hit another high, post-bye, it’s now time to hit the sky for the Super Rugby Pacific frontrunners.
A short turnaround into a Friday night fixture against the Fijian Drua in sweltering Suva, followed by a clash in Canberra against back-to-back semifinalists the Brumbies has coach Laidlaw on guard, despite this magical 7-0 start to the season in his first year in charge.
Only twice before, in their 29-year history, have the Hurricanes enjoyed longer winning streaks (10 games in 2018 and also across 2016-17), while this now equals their best-ever start to a campaign, which had come in 2015.
Having already looked mighty impressive to defy many expectations, their clash with the Chiefs, not forgetting this was their first outing without injured All Blacks halfback Cam Roigard, was one which shaped as their biggest test of the season to date.
But after passing it with flying colours (36-23 with a bonus point to boot), they have now shot five points clear at the top of the ladder from the Blues and Brumbies, who both had the weekend off and will square off with one another at Eden Park on Saturday night.
Rarefied air indeed for a side so used to having to play catch-up on the ladder, who have finished fifth on the log the past two seasons, which has resulted in their seasons ending in quarterfinal defeats on the road to those Brumbies.
But Laidlaw was hesitant to go putting a label on this latest victory, even if it was one that came against the pre-competition favourites, and which has now seen the
TAB move the two sides to level odds for the title.
“I’m actually genuinely not sure,” he said when asked if this was something of a ‘statement performance’.
“I think it gives us a lot of confidence that we’ve played all the New Zealand teams.
“But the Chiefs could have easily won that game. The little momentum shifts are just the difference aren’t they?”
Indeed, while admitting “mixed” feelings to the performance, Laidlaw was most delighted with the composure his side were able to show to storm back and finish off a Chiefs side who had fought their own way back into the contest.
“I really enjoyed that, because it showed another way to win, and find different solutions,” he said.
“We’ve won a couple of games where we’ve been dominant, but to get back into a real Kiwi derby where there is momentum shifts all the time, I think that’s really good for the group.”
On the other side of the coin, Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan was left to rue a struggling early scrum, which saw George Dyer a halftime replacement for Reuben O’Neill at tighthead to shore it up, as well as a few key moments of unpolished execution in attack which led either directly to Hurricanes points or “released the pressure valve when we had opportunities to turn the screws”.
Hurricanes coach Clark Laidlaw
In a game where Anton Lienert-Brown was a late withdrawal through illness, and the Chiefs were made to play from 10 points behind in a first half where they had Shaun Stevenson fail and HIA and Emoni Narawa issued a yellow card, McMillan was proud of the fight shown nonetheless, against a team he’s already looking forward to meeting again.
“They’ve got to come up home and play us [in the penultimate round on May 24] and I feel like we’ve got still a hell of a lot of growth in our side, we learned some good stuff about how they’re going to approach the game and where we can be better.”
The Chiefs, who lost just one game last year on their way to top seeding, now go into their bye with a 5-3 record for the season, nine points off the pace and sitting in a relatively lowly fifth spot, a point behind the Rebels, following their 47-31 bonuspoint win over the Highlanders in Melbourne.
They at least won’t be overtaken on their bye week − the Reds six points back following their 17-14 loss to Moana Pasifika in Whangārei − ahead of a return to action next Friday in Sydney against the Waratahs, who ended the Crusaders’ winning run at one, with their dramatic 43-40 golden-point victory in Sydney, which sees the red and blacks just two points ahead of the bottom-placed Force, who they meet in Perth this weekend.
“The Chiefs could have easily won that game. The little momentum shifts are just the difference aren’t they?”