The Hurricanes take on the Sunwolves in Wellington as Round 11 of the Super Rugby season gets underway. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 5:35pm (AEST).
The last time – in fact, the only time – these teams met, the Canes almost broke the century mark, winning 83-17 in Round 1 last year.
The Sunwolves are a better side now for sure but then arguably so are the Hurricanes.
The Canes are currently sitting second in the competitive New Zealand conference and fourth overall.
Considering the Sunwolves’ fortunes – played eight, lost eight and by an average of 35 points in their last five away games – it’s easy to write this game off as predictable and without overall importance but there are some interesting subplots.
For the Hurricanes their fearless leader, Brad Shields, has found himself in the middle of an international tug of war between the England RFU and New Zealand Rugby Union. Eddie Jones has said that he wants to take Shields on the England tour to South Africa in a couple of months but the NZRU are insistent that Shields is contracted until the end of the season and cannot play for another national side until then. Whether this drama has an impact is yet to be seen.
Rugby fans everywhere will be excited about seeing Ben Lam in this game – when you combine one of the most effective ball runners in the competition with one of the weakest defences, we could be looking at a long highlights reel post-game.
Arguably even more exciting for the Canes faithful is the return of Nehe Milner-Skudder – he’s been out since October but his shoulder injury has been responding well and he’s likely to come on from the bench.
For the Sunwolves, this match will likely see another brave performance from their leader Pieter Labuschagne. Interestingly, the combination of his team having to do a lot of defending this season and his own ability and guts has Labuschagne as one of the top defenders in the whole competition. He’s a talismanic figure for the team from Japan and he’s going to need to be at his best.
Prediction
It’s hard to see any other result than a Canes victory, with the real question being how big the winning margin will be.
Hurricanes to win by 25.
Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 5:35pm (AEST) on Friday.
Oliver Matthews
Expert
Against the Sunwolves? You're saying the Sunwolves were hard done by?
TwoTahs
Guest
Oliver, I’m not sure which game you were watching but there were so many bum refereeing decisions against the Sunwolves so as not to be funny. I’m not entirely sure that your narrative accurately describes the game.
RugbysRigged
Guest
Canes by plenty and plenty of tries there were. Canes could easily have scored a century had they not been playing in "let the Wolves have they ball, and practice our defense" mode, for most of the game (particularly the second half). Christie had an excellent first game. Nothing spectacular, but solid all round play, with no obvious massive weaknesses. Gives me hope of massive improvement from here. Jamie Booth's box-kicking was as disastrous as ever (or perhaps even worse). But I suspect that Booth must have been told to box-kick till perhaps the 75 minute mark. When the Canes ditched the "let the Wolves have they ball, and practice our defense" mode, and easily scored three very quick tries. Haven't quite figured out how the Canes switched on and off the "let the Wolves have they ball, and practice our defense" mode. But in that last 5 minutes at least, it appeared as simple as having Booth stow the box-kick, and flick the ball on (to Garden-Bachop perhaps?), to work the ball up the field. The last three tries came so quickly (and unexpectedly), that I didn't really see who was doing the damage. Booth's passing was much faster than last week (where it was disastrously slow). So great to see that improvement. Great to see Garden-Bachop back. IMHO, the Canes need a backup play-maker to Beauden. And Garden-Bachop looks to me like their best option. Didn't notice him at work though. Which isn't a criticism. He didn't have much time.
Lara
Guest
I know the Tmo needs to do his job, but tonight BS got way to excited with his calls n the ref was to weak to make the calls that he should have.
Machpants
Roar Guru
Canes by plenty, plenty of tries, plenty of errors and plenty of frustrated supporters. They were rubbish, and Christie did not 'impress' at all -his kicking was abysmal and delivery lethargic, booth made a massive difference when he came on, thus those last three tries. Canes tackling was weak, No dominance at all, to go with rubbish passes, crap line out and poor running lines. Scramble defence and scrum was good, canes have some amazing individual talent esp in the backs - but as a team that was embarrassing vs the worst team in the comp by miles
Oliver Matthews
Expert
MATCH REPORT The Hurricanes have beaten the Sunwolves 43 - 15 in Wellington in a game that was both entertaining and frustrating! Ahead of the game all the talk was about just how big the winning margin for the Canes was going to be. There was surely no way that the Sunwolves could win and maybe not even compete with the pace, flair and clinical nature of the Canes. In the end the Canes won comfortably but there were huge portions of the game where they had to defend hard to keep the Sunwolves out. At half time the score was 21-10 and at the 69 minute mark it was 26-15 and the Sunwolves had a glimmer in their eye that maybe something special might just happen. It was only in the final 6 minutes that saw the Canes run in three tries and stretch their lead to something respectable. The Canes further demonstrated the defensive rigour that they’ve added to their capabilities this season. They’ve always had the attacking flair and ability to run in scores from anyway at any time but this year they have really stepped up when it comes to playing without the ball. What will be a little concerning to the Canes and the coaches is that there were far too many errors, especially in the first half. Passes going to ground, losing the ball at the breakdown and a very poor line out will be frustrating for a side that sees themselves as genuine champion contenders. The line out especially would have been frustrating - better sides than the Sunwolves will have exploited that more and turned lost line outs into real pressure and points. It was great to see some Canes heroes back on the park after varying lengths of break and the Savea brothers and especially Milner-Skudder will have enjoyed getting the ball in their hands. If these returning talents can stay fit then they should be in rich form come the business end of the season. Debutant scrum half, Christie, impressed and picked up his first Super Rugby try and while Perenara wont be worried about his starting spot it’s good for the team to have some depth developing in that key position. The referee and assistants played quite a big part today - tries were not given after TMO reviews of play that seemed to come ages before the score and there were lots of input from all the officials but in general they managed the game well. It was more player error than over officiating that caused the first half to be so stop start. For the Sunwolves it will be another week of pride mixed with disappointment and frustration. Yes they were valiant but no matter how many articles include that word when describing the team from Japan, the reality is that they haven’t won a game yet this season and have been on the end of some hidings. They are definitely getting better and it will not be surprising if they pick up 2 wins before the end of the season. Their continuity and ball retention was impressive and for long periods they had the Canes pinned down inside their 22. But while the Sunwolves had all the ball and territory for about 30 minutes they could only score 5 points. The Canes scored three tries in 6 minutes when they had the ball. If the Sunwolves can start to work on that finishing then they really could become a threat for a number of Super Rugby sides. One of those sides is coming round the corner - the Sunwolves have a week off and then will head to Brisbane where they will be eyeing up a real chance of a victory. For the Canes the mission continues and they play the Lions, Blues and Reds all in New Zealand over the coming weeks. These should all be victories for the Canes but they will be harder than today’s game and the errors will need to disappear.
Die hard
Roar Rookie
Maybe all the new faces at the sunwolves plus the new coaches just took a few games to get things together
ajg
Guest
lol banter
Oliver Matthews
Expert
Full Time 80' - The Hurricanes have beaten the Sunwolves 43-15 in Wellington in an entertaining game. The scoreline might make you think that the Canes had it all their own way but for large portions of the game the home side were camped in their own 22 and had to defend for ages. The Sunwolves yet again showed that they are improving and they heaped pressure on the Canes without getting the rewards. This was the difference in the end - the Canes only really needed a few opportunities to rack up over 40 points and were clinical when they did get the chances. The Canes will be relieved that they picked up the full points win - with about 10 minutes to go they were looking like missing out on the bonus point. They will want to sharpen up for sure as there was too much messy play from them for lots of the game but they showed that they are so dangerous if you give them any sort of a chance. Full match report to come. Hurricanes: 43 Sunwolves: 15
Tom English
Roar Guru
Aaanndd the best thing about NZ stadiums is...the playlists- Walk The Moon, how good.
Oliver Matthews
Expert
80' - Jordie Barrett missed the conversion just to the left and the final whistle sounds. Hurricanes: 43 Sunwolves: 15
Oliver Matthews
Expert
Try 79' - And somehow there is time for one more!! Aso is in again as he finishes a lovely move. Jordie Barrett finds a lovely gap and is in behind the defence. He spins it out wide to the wing and Aso is there to collect the pop pass from Savea and he dives in the corner. Hurricanes: 43 Sunwolves: 15
Oliver Matthews
Expert
Conversion 78' - Nice conversion from Jordie B and that's more like the Canes we expected to see. Hurricanes: 38 Sunwolves: 15
Oliver Matthews
Expert
Try 76' - And the Canes are in again - lovely passage of play with lots of hands on the ball. No errors - sharp passes and nice support and Shields is there to crash over the last couple of metres as the Canes had found space down their left hand side. Sunwolves broken now. Hurricanes: 36 Sunwolves: 15
Kane
Guest
Hang on, TMO wants the referee to look at a possible high tackle 20minutes a go. Stand by.
Oliver Matthews
Expert
75' - Missed conversion with 5 minutes to go. Hurricanes: 31 Sunwolves: 15
Oliver Matthews
Expert
Try 73' - Clinical from the Canes there and Aso is in for a try! The Canes got right up to the line with the forwards and then moved it through the hands quickly out to their left and Aso run over for the try. Nicely worked there from the home side and they will want one more before the final buzzer. Hurricanes: 31 Sunwolves: 15
Oliver Matthews
Expert
Penalty 71' - Canes have a penalty as the Sunwolves are off side. No bonus point for the Canes right now so they will want to get that sorted asap - they need the full number of points from this game! They go for touch and are about 10 metres out from the Sunwolves line. Hurricanes: 26 Sunwolves: 15
Oliver Matthews
Expert
70' - Conversion is missed so it's still an 11 point gap with 10 minutes to go. Hurricanes: 26 Sunwolves: 15
Oliver Matthews
Expert
Try 69' - The Sunwolves then get the ball back - chip ahead and Fukuoka wins the spring, picks the bouncing ball up brilliantly at pace and is in for a try in the corner!!! Hurricanes: 26 Sunwolves: 15