Goosen a star act on the wing

Wes Goosen is the best right wing in Super Rugby.

That’s if you go off the RugbyPass Index, which assigns a score to every player based on their ability to influence a game.

Goosen moved up to a rating of

80 after his try against the Rebels on Saturday in the Hurricanes’

29-19 win at Westpac Stadium. That places the 23-year-old one index point ahead of Crusader Sevu Reece in the right wing rankings. Reece’s Crusaders team-mate, George Bridge, is rated as the best winger overall on 89, with Goosen second.

But no-one seems to be putting Goosen in the same All Blacks bolter category as Reece, despite his seven tries in 684 minutes this season.

Maybe that’s because Goosen tends to use his rapid acceleration to go around defenders when he scores in the corner, while Reece has the highlight-reel bulldozer efforts. Reece also has a better scoring rate of six tries in

426 minutes this season. Both have grubber-kick-andcollect tries to their name this season and both have been officially listed as 1.79-metres tall, but Goosen has a five-kilogram advantage at 92kg to Reece’s 87kg.

Goosen wasn’t about to start talking himself up, but Hurricanes assistant coach Jason Holland said he rated Goosen as the best finisher in the competition.

‘‘I think so. It’s because he’s tough and he’s quick. That helps you be a pretty good finisher. He’s finished every opportunity he’s got for us.’’

Holland said Goosen was the quickest player in their squad, quipping he was ‘‘just slightly quicker than me’’, but said he was more impressed by other aspects of Goosen’s play this season.

‘‘He’s always been real quick, but he’s just real consistent at the moment. He’s making a million tackles, which is awesome, and he’s finishing everything.

‘‘Some of the tries he’s scored, a lot of people wouldn’t finish them. Wes has always been able to do that, but he’s really consistent around some of the other parts of his game, which is what I’m loving at the moment.’’

As for the man himself, he wasn’t thinking about his All Blacks bolter status. He was more worried about holding his place in the team that now has fellow winger Ben Lam back to full fitness.

His credits his quickness as a combination of speed work at the Hurricanes and his background as a track sprinter at Wellington College in his high school years, but said he couldn’t remember his 100m personal best.

He was also quick to deflect praise for his try-scoring efforts, instead pointing to Jordie Barrett as the man setting him up.

‘‘I’ve been getting some pretty good passes from Jordie, he’s been making it pretty easy. It’s perfect being outside him. His passing game is just that good, so it’s been easy.’’

Goosen played centre throughout most of his career before getting a run on the wing for the Hurricanes.

He hopes to return to the midfield at some point, but for now was happy to be anywhere in the starting backline.

In other Hurricanes news, Dane Coles has been ruled out for at least another week with his calf strain, while TJ Perenara rejoins the squad from his All Blacks rest week ahead of Friday’s clash with the Blues in Auckland.