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Hurricanes hit high gear in bruising win over Waratahs
By AAP
The NSW Waratahs are sweating on a suspected serious ankle injury to Max Jorgensen after the razzle dazzle and ruthless Hurricanes burst their bubble with a thumping 57-12 Super Rugby Pacific victory in Wellington.
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Having had high hopes of a first win in the New Zealand capital in a decade, the Waratahs will instead return home with tails between their legs – and some huge injury concerns.
Cashing in on the first-half loss of NSW backline keys Jorgensen and playmaking flyhalf Lawson Creighton, the Hurricanes piled on eight tries to two at Sky Stadium on Friday night.
But coach Dan McKellar will likely be far more concerned about a seemingly long-term ankle injury for Jorgensen than the half century of points his side leaked.
The star fullback looked to have fallen victim to a hip-drop tackle before being escorted from the field in the 13th minute.
Creighton and winger Darby Lancaster also failed to see out the half before the Hurricanes turned a 12-point advantage into a runaway victory to jump from eighth to sixth on the ladder.
After opening the scoring with an early try to Creighton, the Waratahs were still in the contest, trailing by 24-12, until another key turning point 10 minutes into the second half.
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Stand-in skipper Joey Walton was yellow-carded for cynically trying to pull down a Hurricanes maul, prompting the referee to award the home team a penalty try and send Walton to the sin bin.
There was no coming back as the Tahs conceded 19 points for Walton’s sin, the Hurricanes racing out to an insurmountable 45-12 lead before adding two more tries to rub salt into the wounds.
Walton lamented his side’s lack of fight when the going got tough.
“I thought we started well and then everything that could go wrong sort of went wrong for us,” he said.
“But we just didn’t adapt well enough and we stopped winning collisions and they just rolled over the top of us.
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“I think five minutes before halftime we felt we were in it and then we just sort of dropped our heads there, which we can’t do. We’ve got to stay in it there.
“We did come out in the second half, fired a shot straight away, but we fell away.
“We’ve just got to adapt better and we’ve got to stay on task.”
After blowing the chance to continue their best start to a season since making the 2005 final, the Waratahs have opted to fly back to Sydney before returning to Auckland next Saturday to face Moana Pasifika.
“They’re not massive trips,” said Waratahs coach Dan McKellar.
“To give the players the chance to just be at home with their family and sleep in their own bed and train out of our facility and get around the boys that aren’t here as well, that’s really important.
“The players that haven’t travelled and just make sure that we keep that continuity within the group, for me that was the benefit.
“If you look at staying here for a week, the amount of time you spend on buses, having to find gyms, having to find training grounds that are suitable, all those sort of things, you probably spend as much time sorting that out as you do sitting in an airport.
“So it was any easy decision.”
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A major shift in intensity by the Canes. Walker-Leawere, Sullivan, Umaga-Jensen, Kirifi, Lomax, Aumua, Iose, Naholo - all were fired up! Interesting to hear Ruben Love talking about working on playing with more depth to increase their ability to get it wide. Also how hard they wanted to step up the defense in recognition of how much Cory Jane puts into it. Love had subliminal skills on display. For the Tahs, Bell and their scrum was a handful and Suaalii was well contained (especially by Sullivan) but had some great touches. Definitely a star on the rise.