Hurricanes v Brumbies: Hurricanes put up 66 points in their qualifying final
Hurricanes 66
Brumbies 12
Wellington had to deal with plenty of wind and rain on Friday night, but the Brumbies couldn’t handle a category five Hurricanes attack at Hnry Stadium.
No Australian team had won a finals game in New Zealand and the Brumbies came into this game with confidence having won four of their last six Super Rugby matches in the country.
Any optimism the Brumbies might have had faded away quickly.
The wet and windy weather was expected to be a problem for both sides, but the home team took it in their stride and moved on to the next stage of the competition.
The opening passages of play were cagey as both teams looked to navigate the conditions as best they could, and the Australian side pinned the Hurricanes back early with better kicking.
The Hurricanes overcame that quickly and capitalised off the first real chance they had when the Brumbies knocked the ball on near the halfway line.
The ball was quickly gathered by the team in yellow and whipped out to their right wing where the Brumbies were stretched too thin, allowing Caleb Delany to finish off the impressive move.
The Brumbies didn’t learn from their mistakes and Cam Roigard crossed for his team’s second try in almost the exact same spot as Delany thanks to Asafo Aumua trucking over his defender and offloading the ball to Callum Harkin, who timed his pass to the halfback perfectly.
The Brumbies would tend to make good ground whenever they had the ball in the first half but would be scuppered either through their own mistakes or a strong piece of defence from the home side.
When the Hurricanes had the ball in their hands they were lightning-quick, spinning the ball out wide, which left the Brumbies scrambling in defence and allowed gaps to open.
Despite finding plenty of success down their right flank, the Hurricanes scored their next try on the left after Ruben Love broke through the Brumbies’ defence with an impressive dummy.
He passed the ball out wide to Kini Naholo, who held the play up and strayed in bounds long enough for Billy Proctor to come steaming on to the ball and cross the tryline without any opposition.
Love was excellent with his place kicking from out wide, but would have been delighted to have one in front of the posts after Warner Dearns scored the Hurricanes’ fourth try of the first half.
This try came with more patient play as the Wellington-based side went through the phases to bring the ball close to the 5m line, with Delany fooling the Brumbies’ defence, eventually popping the ball up to Dearns, who ran a perfect line to plant the ball over the tryline.
The Brumbies were able to hit back five minutes out from halftime, with halfback Ryan Lonergan noticing no Hurricanes players were manning the backfield while inside their own 22.
Lonergan picked the ball up off the back of a ruck and chipped it through for Corey Toole to catch on the full and cross the line.
The Hurricanes recovered well from their mistakes with another try for Roigard, who ran in under the posts after splitting the defence open with a dummy pass from the base of a ruck near the Australian side’s 5m line.
The Hurricanes’ patient attacking play continued into the second half and they soon crossed for another five-pointer for Dearns under the posts after more than 20 phases of play.
The Brumbies didn’t throw in the towel, though, as Toole broke a tackle near halfway on his side’s left flank, making plenty of ground before he gave the ball to Lonergan and Tane Edmed eventually finished off the move.
The game started to settle at this point with both teams jousting in the middle of the park, but a loose pass from the Brumbies was latched on to by substitute Ngane Punivai, who was chased down from halfway by Brumbies fullback Tom Wright, but the Hurricane had enough momentum to carry him over the line for another try.
The substitutes helped to even the teams up slightly, but the Hurricanes continued to pile the points on their opponents.
A brilliant attacking lineout move from the Hurricanes caused the Brumbies’ defence to become completely disjointed and a hole emerged for Punivai to run through untouched for his second try of the evening.
The home team continued to show strength in defence, with one passage of play seeing the ball turned over near their own try line and Brad Shields booting the ball into the Brumbies half.
The Hurricanes raced up and put enough pressure on the Australian side to win the ball back, slowly making their way towards the tryline.
Love then took the ball and kicked it out to the corner for Punivai, who rose above Toole and planted the ball down for his third try of the game.
Love completed his brilliant night with his ninth conversion of the evening, making him 10 from 10 off the tee.
Hurricanes 66 (Caleb Delany, Cam Roigard 2, Billy Proctor, Warner Dearns 2, Ngane Punivai 3 tries; Ruben Love 9 cons; Ruben Love pen)
Brumbies 12 (Corey Toole, Tane Edmed tries; Ryan Lonergan con)
HT: 38-7