Hurricanes storm in despite triple yellow
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HURRICANES overcame a poor second half in which they conceded three yellow cards to beat Fijian Drua 38-15 and stretch their winning start to eight matches to end their opponent’s unbeaten record at home.
Clark Laidlaw’s table toppers were impressive in the first half, scoring four tries to lead 28-7.
However, in the second half they spent almost 10 minutes with 13 men when DuPlessis Kirifi (high tackle) and Isaia Walker-Leawere (persistent infringing) were sin-binned.
Replacement prop Caleb Delany also saw yellow for the same offence as Walker-Leawere two minutes before full time.
Drua were unable to get into the game in the first half because of errors, turnovers and penalties. That situation was reversed after half-time as the Hurricanes, tiring in the heat, couldn’t hold onto possession and were heavily penalised, though their defence mostly held firm.
Drua reduced the Hurricanes’ lead with a try to scrum-half Kitione Salawa early in the second half but they were only able to score three points – a Kemu Valetini penalty – when the Hurricanes were two men down.
Hurricanes opened the scoring with a try after seven minutes by centre Billy Proctor from a speculative in-field kick from Salesi Rayasi.
Drua quickly hit back through young fly-half Isikeli Rabitu to draw level but the Hurricanes opened a 21-point lead by half-time with tries from back rower Devon Flanders, centre Jordie Barrett and hooker James O’Reilly.
Salawa scored from a lineout drive in the 46th minute as the Drua began to get on top, bringing the 15,000 crowd at the National Stadium to life. Hurricanes suffered a major blow when they lost hooker Asafo Aumua to a knee injury. Peni Matavalu was held up over the Hurricanes try line in what was a pivotal moment. Returned to full strength, Hurricanes extended their lead with a penalty from Aidan Morgan and finished with a try by Xavier Numia after the full-time siren and while down to 14.
“It just shows that over here you’ve got to go the full 80 minutes,” Hurricanes captain Brad Shields said. “It was a good test of our character.
“We talked during the week that it was going to be about the effort early. We didn’t think we were going to be down to 13 but it did show good character, the way we held it together on the line and connected in defence.”
Western Force heaped more misery on the Crusaders with a 37-15 victory in Perth – the Australian side’s first win over the five-time reigning champions since 2013.
Crusaders took the lead through Levi Aumua’s score but trailed 16-5 at half-time due to Ben Donaldson’s back-to-back penalties and Chase Tiatia’s try. Deadeye Donaldson hit three more penalties in the second half, with Crusaders responses coming from George Bell’s and Sevu Reece’s touchdowns.
However, Sam Carter and former Ealing Trailfinders back row Carlo Tizzano touched down to round off the victory and leave Crusaders rock bottom with just one win.
Queensland Reds
beat the Highlanders
31-0 in Brisbane to consolidate sixth place in the standings. Coming off three losses in a row and missing four frontline players in Tate McDermott, Fraser McReight, Josh Flook and Seru Uru, the Reds dominated the match with Hunter Paisami, Ryan Smith, Lawson Creighton and Suliasi Vunivalu scoring tries in a bonus-point win.
Hoskins Sotutu scored two tries to help the Blues rout the Brumbies 46-7, which highlighted a gulf between top New Zealand and Australian sides in the competition.
The Blues and Brumbies came into the match jointly in second-place behind the unbeaten Hurricanes. But after an indecisive first 10 minutes, the Blues simply overwhelmed their opponents in wet and slippery conditions, posting their largest-ever win over the Canberra-based side.
By half-time, the Blues had scored three tries including Sotutu’s double and the Brumbies had been forced to make four times as many tackles as their opponents, while
No.8 Sotutu is the top try scorer of the tournament with eight tries.
Further tries came from Caleb Clarke, Dalton Papali’i, Ricky Riccitelli and Kurt Eklund as the Blues ran riot, while Luke Reimer scored the Brumbies’ only try.
“From the beginning of the season we’ve been building a lot, and coming out of the bye week we had to pick up where we left off,” Sotutu said.
“We know we can play the carry, clean game really well and that with the weather it was going to be a strong point of our game.”
Former All Blacks flyhalf Simon Mannix will take over as head coach of Portugal at the end of the season. Mannix, who played for the Hurricanes, Sale and Gloucester, is currently head coach at Biarritz and has signed a four-year deal with Portugal to replace Patrice Lagisquet who stepped down after the World Cup.