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Hurricanes vs Blues takes: Canes' pack puffed out, Godfrey NZ's best 10
By Ben Smith
The Blues earned their first win of the season in Wellington on Saturday night, finding their way past the Hurricanes with a 69th-minute Mark Tele’a try the game-winning moment.
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Despite a swathe of possession over the final quarter and a higher chance to score than Ronaldo facing a one-armed goalkeeper on crutches, the Canes couldn’t do it.
The visitors came away with a much-needed win in the capital to kickstart their season while the Canes will rue a lack of execution in the final 10.
Canes couldn’t come up clutch
Enjoying 84 per cent possession over the final 10 minutes, the Hurricanes couldn’t get over the line for the game-stealing try down by four.
Their maul was disarmed by the Blues pack from the five with about five to go, with a second chance coming to the Hurricanes from an offside penalty.
After failing to bully the Blues’ pack over, they tried a straightforward play down the blind side with Du’Plessis Kirifi charging at the Blues’ defence after detaching from the maul. He was turned.
With one last roll of the dice with the clock in the red they went to the maul again from five out, only to be pinged themselves for obstruction.
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The Blues were down a forward, with No.8 Hoskins Sotutu in the bin for a high shot and they were still stopped.
The Hurricanes inexperienced pack will have to cop that on the chin when they should really have got the job done.
Harry Godfrey is the best 10 in New Zealand right now
After playing a valuable hand against the Drua scoring the game-winning try, first five Harry Godfrey continued with another solid showing in Wellington, showing why the Hurricanes have invested in his development as a 10.
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He outplayed his opposite Plummer, with a strong running game the core of Godfrey’s game. He carried 13 times for 68 metres, third most in the game behind Mark Tele’a and Peter Lakai, and broke open the Blues for a solo try running back up the middle.
He is playing a perfect fiddle for halfback Cam Roigard who often dictates play from the base a lot and likes to go running himself.
With Damian McKenzie and Beauden Barrett playing fullback, Godfrey is the best 10 in the country right now.
The group is not that experience, with Josh Jacomb at the Chiefs, Taine Robinson at the Highlanders, Taha Kemara at the Crusaders and Plummer at the Blues. After three weeks, Godfrey is leading that pack.
The more Mark Tele’a carries, the better
One of the Blues’ failures to begin the season has been struggling to get the ball wide to their world-class running threats.
All Blacks star Mark Tele’a was the second-most employed ball carrier in Super Rugby Pacific in 2024, averaging 11.3 carries per game. On Saturday, the 28-year-old had a season-high of eight carries, still below his average from a season ago, but considering the Blues as a team had 50 fewer carries than their 2024 season average, their star winger had a higher percentage of their team carries than last season’s average.
With those touches, the winger was able to lead the game in carry metres, running for 82 metres with the ball in hand while beating five defenders.
With his side down one point with 10 minutes remaining, Tele’a received the ball with three Hurricanes defenders ahead of him. He skinned Riley Hohepa effortlessly, outpaced a gassed Peter Umaga-Jensen and went airborne to reach the corner as he collided with Harry Godfrey.
It was a match-winning moment that only a handful of athletes in the game could have pulled off.
Peter Lakai’s ascension continues
Lining up in the respective No. 8 jerseys in this Kiwi derby were two of the most exciting loose forward prospects in the New Zealand game, Hoskins Sotutu and Peter Lakai.
With the Hurricanes offering more attacking play with the ball in hand, it was Lakai who topped the carry count in the game and also was second only to Mark Tele’a in carry metres.
Sotutu, on the other hand, was tasked with more of a defensive workload on the night as his team operated with just 40 per cent possession, and finished with a red card after a high shot on Lakai.
The most h8ed became the least favoured in this round, with the points going to Lakai on the night in the head-to-head No.8 match up.
Rieko Ioane schemed out of existence
You’d love to see the Blues craft a game plan one night where Ioane can explode again with ball-in-hand in a big derby against another NZ team.
One of the fastest players in the country has been reduced to a crash ball support line runner in his new job as a 13. He isn’t getting open field opportunities that often but the Blues don’t seem to care.
He had five carries for eight metres, a low output by Ioane’s standards. For the love of some social media highlights, can we get Ioane the ball in space?
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i think godfrey is a good player but remember2 of our number10s are playing in diffrent positions at 15
With so many first choice players out the Hurricanes are missing that last 10% of quality. They’ve shown they have great depth to run these teams so close but you can’t help but feel Aumua, Lomax, and Flanders would have made a big difference in the forwards, not to mention Love, Higgins, and Proctor in the backs. All teams are obviously carrying a lot of injuries but I think the Canes are missing the most first choice players - at least 7, but maybe 8.
I haven’t been that impressed with his authority on the game, he’s taken far too much of a passive approach to his involvement for me, I hope he can snap out of it.
Sotutu the best on the night for me, sublime skill on multiple occasions and a concerted effort for a alround both sides of the ball game. Best Kiwi 8 performance so far this season, though that’s not saying much (red card obviously excluded).
Rieko has had plenty of opportunity to run, it’s his own preferred attitude that causes him to run straight into people these days (basically he understands he no longer has enough pace to go to the outside of people).
He still has plenty of speed to go around people, his issue is that is the only way he knows how, so even a mediocre defender knows exactly what he’s going to do and can tackle him fairly easily. They don’t need to worry about being beaten on the inside or being bumped off. He will stick the ball under his inside arm and step to the outside and the defender is there before he is. If he developed a way to beat a man on the inside they would have to stand off him and that would give him a chance to break on the outside.
I say this as someone who is 15 years older than Reiko and would not have been able to tackle him when he was 10.
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Isn’t it great to see a number of classy backs emerging this year that we’re not so obvious last season. Razor must be delighted with the options he now has particularly at pivot and inside backs. Interesting.
Agree that Godfrey made Plummer look ordinary, which maybe will kill any talk of the latter being an AB prospect. As for Ioane, why should the Blues “create a game plan” around a player proven to lack any vision in any position he has played?
Whatever happened to Zarn Sullivan?
He could have been a great 10 or 15 but he refused to shift franchises. Now he is wasted watching Plummer and Barrett. Sad.
Injured.
“…had five carries for eight metres, a low output by Ioane’s standards. For the love of some social media highlights, can we get Ioane the ball in space?” What? Thats the job of a 13…Ifvhe wants the ball in space he has to pull his head in and go back to the wing.
For once Andrew, we are in agreement. Ioane is a wing with world class speed who has been wasted at 13 the five previous seasons, now going on six.
If a player needs space to best utilize his speed and skill then he is a WINGER.
Agreed, and it is an embarrassment that the same point has been repeated by many for some 5 years now. Ioane is a wing, not a centre.
Godfrey better than Jacomb who just had a fine game against top tier opposition for the 3rd week in a row? Not so sure about that.
Agree. I thought Jacomb was very good. Really growing into the position well with Dmac at 15.
Let’s also consider that Jacombs has McKenzie on the pitch with him at all times and while I do not think McKenzie has proven to be a great test 10, he is undoubtedly a great Super Rugby 10
Harry Godfrey, Josh Jacombs, and Taha Kemara are all playing very well at 10 for this very early stage of the season. Let’s hope all three of them, and Cam Millar stay healthy and continue to be selected in the starting 10 jersey and we will see who performs the best in May and June when it matters most.