Canes coach bites tongue on officials’ blunder
The Hurricanes brushed off the bizarre Jordie Barrett conversion that wasn’t, well aware there are more important things to address after a penalty-laden loss to the Blues.
Coach Jason Holland will reassemble his side under Covid-19 alert level 2 restrictions at their Wellington base today, to prepare for round two against the Crusaders behind closed doors on Saturday night.
Amid plenty of talking points and work-ons in a typically messy early season encounter, Barrett being wrongly denied a conversion in the 31-16 Super Rugby Aotearoa loss will not be high on the list.
At the time it was a big deal, in the 63rd minute at Sky Stadium after Hurricanes wrecking ball Asafo Aumua charged over for his second try to narrow the Blues’ lead to 21-16.
Barrett knocked the conversion over, looked happy and was then mortified to see referee assistants Mike Fraser and James Doleman’s flags stay down. A replay several minutes later on the big screen had the home crowd of 13,305 howling, but it was too late.
‘‘When I see Jordie pick his tee up and throw, he thinks he’s got it. I don’t know,’’ Holland said.
‘‘That wasn’t one of the major things I was looking at, at the time but Jordie thinks it went over. It’s a trivial point at the moment, really.’’
An Otere Black penalty then a 65m Rieko Ioane try inside the final five minutes sealed the deal for the Blues, but the fact a referee, two touch judges and a television match official couldn’t see Barrett’s conversion slip inside the right upright to narrow the gap to three points at a vital stage was alarming.
Said Hurricanes captain Ardie Savea, in his 100th match and first as skipper: ‘‘Paul [Williams, referee] said that the TMO had an angle that clearly showed it didn’t go over, so there’s only so much that you can do, and argue, so I just tried to move on and focus on the next moment.’’
Savea was immense and lifted his Hurricanes back into the contest on his big night. They had their moments on attack, notably Aumua sending bodies flying, but errors, poor kicks and penalties were a worry. The Blues’ pack also had a clear edge with a powerful scrum and effective rolling maul.
Discipline was the obvious focus after Williams blew 27 penalties, 15 of them against the Hurricanes. Two of those resulted in yellow cards, with lock James Blackwell and flanker Du’Plessis Kirifi sent off either side of halftime and the Hurricanes down to 14 men for 20 minutes.
‘‘We were in at halftime and feeling like we were playing some good footy and had them under the pump [11-7 up],’’ Holland said.
‘‘The boys showed a lot of ticker for a long period when we were down to 14, but no team is going to be able to defend, defend and have their flow taken away by having 14 men for a long time and give penalties.
‘‘It’s a big part of where the game is going, discipline is massive. We weren’t good enough there tonight.’’
While the Blues establish a temporary base outside Auckland, with the bye this weekend, the Hurricanes face the toughest trip in New Zealand rugby albeit without braying red and black fans in the stands.
They’ll also be without lock Scott Scrafton who faces time on the sidelines after falling heavily on his left ankle. He ended the night on crutches, wearing a moonboot.
One positive is they did the job there last year, toppling the eventual Aotearoa champions in Christchurch amid a five-match winning streak. The Crusaders got their 2021 campaign under way with a 26-13 win in Dunedin on Friday.
‘‘We got an awesome squad, an awesome group of boys who are working really hard. We just need to be really smart around how we train and what we fix,’’ Holland said. ‘‘At times in that first half we were really good in our attack and strong in our defence but not for long enough. We’ll pick the good bits out, and fix up our discipline, and it’s always pretty exciting to go down there.’’
They will be better for the run but again need to play catch-up, fast, after opening losses to the Blues and Crusaders last year cost them a shot at the Aotearoa title.
Tony Brown’s willingness to fire shots at referees and opposition tactics should never be berated, but the Highlanders’ coach ought to take a good, hard look at his own side’s deficiencies.
Brown was all too happy to criticise the Crusaders after his side’s 26-13 defeat in Dunedin on Friday night, labelling the state of rugby ‘‘sad’’ and suggesting the cynical visitors weren’t punished for conceding 15 penalties.
Two yellow cards – to captain Scott Barrett and flanker Ethan Blackadder – were indeed dished out, as referee Ben O’Keeffe and his assistants particularly cracked down hard on offside play.
But that wasn’t enough for Brown, who was more interested in deflecting blame after his team’s season-opening loss than looking in the mirror.
After all, if he wanted to see the Crusaders’ admittedly poor discipline punished, he should have got in the ear of co-captain Aaron Smith or Ash Dixon and instructed them to line up more than the lone penalty attempt they took.
Mitch Hunt could have flicked one over with 13 minutes left. It, one of eight kickable penalties they turned down, would have cut the Crusaders’ lead to 19-16.
Instead, they were guilty of being pig-headed, drilling the ball deep inside the 22 and attempting to tick the scoreboard over with five-pointers.
Time to dig up the old saying: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result.
In the Highlanders’ case, they repeatedly attempted to bulldoze what was essentially an All Blacks tight-five with their rolling maul.
It didn’t work. And, when they finally accepted they didn’t have the horsepower to do it, their other options weren’t much better.
Three cross-field kicks were
launched inside the 22, all failed to find their target, including a shocker from Hunt which just about sailed into the stands.
Talk about letting the Crusaders off the hook through poor decision-making, and execution.
Two tries to show for 54 per cent possession – 22.4 per cent alone inside the Crusaders’ 22, 57 per cent territory, and 417 running metres, says it all.
Moody madness
Crusaders prop Joe Moody should count himself a lucky man after avoiding a card in the opening minutes of the match.
Like an angry bull, Moody unleashed a flurry of open-handed blows at Highlanders lock Jack Regan’s mug, connecting with at least three of them.
A juiced up Moody took exception to Regan holding him at a maul, but it didn’t warrant what was an unjustified reaction.
Moody, who copped a twomatch suspension for striking
Waratah Kurtley Beale in 2018, might not be so lucky next time. Whistle, whistle, whistle
If you thought the Crusaders were poor disciplined on Friday night, how about the Hurricanes and Blues the following evening?
Referee Paul Williams blew 27 penalties during the Blues’ 31-16 win in Wellington, 15 of them against the home side.
Whistle-blowers have been instructed to crack down on offside this season, meaning defenders have to be ‘‘clearly onside’’ to avoid being penalised.
The early signs aren’t good for viewers’ ears, with 50 penalties blown across the first two games of the season.
Hurricanes robbed
Something’s wrong if assistant referees Mike Fraser and James Doleman didn’t get their eyes checked first thing on Sunday morning.
The pair kept their flags down when Jordie Barrett blasted over a conversion on Saturday night, burgling the hosts of two points.
It would have pulled them to within 21-18 with 17 minutes to play, before Rieko Ioane dashed clear and scored the Blues’ second fortuitous try of the night to bag the result.
Hurricanes fans howled at the blunder when replays were beamed on the big screen, but they should have been equally upset with the try their team gifted the Blues in the opening minutes, when Devan Flanders’ pass in front of his sticks didn’t find Vaea Fifita and sat up for Dalton Papalii to pounce on.