THE GOOD NEWS: Better signs from Canes THE BAD NEWS: Crusaders are up next
The test is no less stern without Richie Mo’unga.
The Crusaders have lost their star first five-eighth for an indefinite period, after his jaw was broken in Saturday’s Super Rugby win over the Stormers, but their forwards have tended to give the Hurricanes more problems.
The two favourites for the New Zealand Conference title now meet in Wellington this coming Saturday, when the home side’s pack will again need to front.
‘‘Mitchell Hunt’s a good footballer and Mike Delany’s very experienced, so while Richie’s good for them, they’ve got two able replacements,’’ Hurricanes head coach Chris Boyd said.
‘‘They bring slightly different things to the game and I’d be interested to see which one they pick but, at the end of the day, we’ll just plan accordingly.
‘‘It’ll be business as usual. We’ve had a look at the last couple of Crusaders games and there’s plenty in there that you know’s coming at you, that’s for sure.’’
The Hurricanes will approach Saturday’s game with mixed preparation. On paper, yesterday’s 34-9 win over the Jaguares in Buenos Aires looks commendable.
But the set pieces weren’t all that solid and little care was taken with possession. The Crusaders’ game is built on punishing opposition errors and they’ll run up a cricket score if the Hurricanes offer up as much ball as they did at Estadio Jose Amalfitani.
To the Hurricanes’ credit, though, they defended stoutly against the Jaguares and will take some justified confidence from that.
That theme of good and bad was mirrored by the mood Boyd watched proceedings in.
‘‘There was little patches of good footy and then there was some patches in between that weren’t so great. It was a long way from a complete performance – a long, long way – but I think it was a step in the right direction after a poor performance last week.’’
And that context is important. After the previous Sunday’s 21-19 loss to the Bulls in Pretoria, the Hurricanes had a very long haul to Buenos Aires.
That affects people’s ability to sleep and train and will be a factor this week too.
The team left Buenos Aires very promptly, via a direct flight to Auckland, and are due back in Wellington this morning.
They’ll train lightly on Tuesday, have Wednesday off and then try to crank things up a bit on Thursday.
Tight forwards, such as Sam Lousi and Chris Eves, will be feeling a bit tender on it, after big workloads against the Jaguares. The backs had a slightly less taxing time and it was good to see Jordie and Beauden Barrett get through significant minutes and for second five-eighth Ngani Laumape to continue his strong start to the season.
Wing Ben Lam, Laumape, Matt Proctor – who had shifted to fullback by then – and replacement centre Vince Aso all scored tries, with loose forward Blade Thomson coming off the bench to bag the final five-pointer.