Savea’s try brings on Dougie

IT MIGHT not have been Julian Savea’s finest rendition of the Dougie, but the Hurricanes wing is hoping he’ll get plenty of practice after breaking his Super Rugby try drought.

When Savea scored against the Sharks it marked his first try in 17 appearances for the Hurricanes and he celebrated with a post-try dance that’s becoming increasingly popular in the rugby ranks.

‘‘I wasn’t going to do it, but TJ [Perenara] pushed me out on my own,’’ Savea said after his side’s 42-18 win in New Plymouth.

‘‘I was going for the hug, but he just pushed me away and said c’mon, you have to do it, so I had to really.’’

The Dougie is a dance move spawned by a Californian hip-hop group and popularised by American singer Chris Brown.

Reds wing Digby Ioane was the first to use it as a post-try celebration last season and it’s catching on with Chiefs wing Lelia Masaga following suit after crossing the line against the Force.

Known for his dancing prowess, Savea’s coy about whether he’ll make it a regular occurrence saying he’ll just be happy if he can increase his strikerate.

‘‘We’ll see how it goes, hopefully I can just score some more tries.’’

In fairness, Savea’s game had been building nicely regardless of his try against the Sharks, but the Hurricanes will be hoping it’s a sign of things to come.

The 21-year-old had been a prolific try scorer at all levels until he hit the wall during last year’s Super Rugby campaign, the drought stretching all the way through the ITM Cup.

‘‘I’m pretty happy [to break the drought],’’ he said. ‘‘But it came from the boys doing the hard work. The coaches set that up with the game plan, but yeah it was good to dot down.’’

He believes his growing combination with fullback Andre Taylor and fellow wing Cory Jane is helping him relax and play his natural game.

‘‘We’ve been talking a lot and working out whether their wings are flat, that sort of stuff, seeing how the game evolves. Whether they’re dropping or coming up, it’s just communication.’’ With all three starting to hit top form the Hurricanes have a potentially potent back three though Savea passed the credit to his forwards.

‘‘We were really disappointed last week. We worked hard on our defence and getting guys over the ball. Lowey [Karl Lowe] and Jack [Lam] were awesome. We worked on the chops [low tackles] and getting that second guy in to get the ball, it was pretty good.’’

Another young player smiling at the improvements in his game is halfback Perenara.

He too was deflecting praise, but like Savea, prop Jeffery ToomagaAllen, and flanker Faifili Levave, has looked more comfortable and confident with each outing.

‘‘We’re happy we got out to the lead and held it. That’s something we worked on this week, sticking to our strengths even if we aren’t going well, not fading away from them.

‘‘The reload was massive this week, the boys were working hard, hitting the ruck then looking forward to getting to the next one. It made my job easier seeing all the boys there having those options.

‘‘There’s still massive amounts to learn. We’ll review but we made a lot of mistakes and they could have capitalised on them and punished us.’’

The Hurricanes head into the bye in sixth place with four wins, three losses and few injuries.

Props Ben May and ToomagaAllen both left the field against the Sharks but are expected to be fit along with Victor Vito (calf) to play the Crusaders in Wellington on Saturday, April 21.