Canes get a pass mark
To use NCEA parlance, the Hurricanes can be assessed a merit grade for their 2019 Super Rugby season. They undoubtedly get a pass mark, but to get the gold-standard of excellence, they would need to be playing in the final this weekend.
These days, kids even get a secondary mark within their overall mark to show how close they were to either going up or down the spectrum. In this context, they deserve an upper merit to highlight how close they came to excellence this year.
They ended the regular season with the most wins of any team with 12, one more than the Crusaders. They missed out on winning the New Zealand conference due to having five fewer bonus points than the Crusaders.
Their untimely loss to the Jaguares in round 14 didn’t help. The Argentinians and the Crusaders were the only two teams to beat the Hurricanes this season, and they’ll contest Saturday’s final in Christchurch.
More than just the record on paper, the Hurricanes have developed a culture of resilience under new head coach John Plumtree which the franchise has never really had.
Seven of their regular season wins came by seven points or fewer. Those with a glass half empty would say they failed to put teams away, hence the lack of bonus points. A glass half full approach indicates they had the ability to gut out results.
The forward pack should earn more praise than anyone is likely to give them.
They were getting knocked from pillar to post for the first third of the season. Plumtree very publicly challenged them during
that period and something twigged after the 32-8 loss to the Crusaders in Wellington that saw them go from strength to strength thereafter.
Their last five games saw them playing against bigger and more experienced packs, including three from South Africa and then the Crusaders, but in each of those games they were at least the match for their opposition, if not getting the upperhand.
Ardie Savea earned his fair share of plaudits during that run. He was as unanimous a competition MVP as you’d likely ever see.
He’s only one man though and the likes of lock James Blackwell, props Toby Smith and Jeff Toomaga-Allen, and loose forward Reed Prinsep all took their games to another level late in the campaign.
Plumtree said he likes what he sees in the future of the franchise.
They have a core of at least 28 players signed for next season, with about 20 of those locked in for the season after that, including Savea, TJ Perenara, Ngani Laumape and Dane Coles.
The losses of Toomaga-Allen and lock Sam Lousi – who didn’t play a game this season due to injury – have already been offset by the signings of Tyrel Lomax from the Highlanders and Scott Scrafton from the Blues.
There are two big question marks which remain.
The first is their ability to win knockout games.
Saturday’s loss was their third-straight semifinal defeat. The Hurricanes have lost eight semifinals in total, three more than any other franchise.
The silver lining is that they went oh-so close to winning against the Crusaders in the 30-26 loss. Their previous seven semifinal losses were by an average of 18 points per game. That sort of margin was looking likely as they trailed 13-0 late in the first half, but they showed that resilience to fight back and very nearly snatch it at the end.
The other question mark surrounds their first-five.
It’s almost certain Beauden Barrett won’t be playing for any team in Super Rugby next year.
That leaves Fletcher Smith and Jackson Garden-Bachop as the first-fives on their roster. Neither really stood out when given the chance this season.
Do they stick with them or look overseas?
Given the faith Plumtree has shown in his youth prospects this year, the former would seem a more likely option.