Hurricanes vs Waratahs takes: The yellow wall in midfield, Tahs backs outshone

The Hurricanes have made it eight straight wins over the NSW Waratahs on Friday evening, where fans at Sky Stadium in Wellington were treated to a one sided affair, with the Hurricanes taking the spoils, 57-12.

After the Hurricanes beat the Highlanders in round five of Super Rugby Pacific, the Hurricanes co-captain and head coach both told media post-match that the bye had come at a good time despite only getting their second win of the season.

Boy were they right, with the week off for the Wellington-based side giving them enough time to integrate both of their All Blacks props back into the starting lineup, where their solid platform up front gave the Hurricanes backs time and space out wide.

Here are five takeaways.

It’s not a wall, it’s Bailyn Sullivan

“It’s the attitude, to dig it in,” Aaron Cruden said on the Sky Sports broadcast after Bailyn Sullivan dived in the corner to score in the 68th minute. Sullivan’s try embodied everything the Hurricanes did on Friday night, where they ran in 57 points. 

Not many professional rugby players in the world would back themselves to stop Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii one-on-one. Well, Hurricanes midfielder Bailyn Sullivan has just done that for 80 minutes. Although Suaalii has been injured for the last month or so of Super Rugby Pacific, you would still expect the attacking brilliance of the five million dollar man to shine through.

Sullivan basically stopped any go-forward for the Waratahs midfielder, highlighted by an excellent bootlace tackle in the first half, when Suaalii got the ball on the outside of the Hurricanes defenders before Sullivan’s tackle stopped any momentum.

Suaalii probably then thought he was in a gap in the Hurricanes’ defence, but once again, it was Sullivan there to stop him. Sullivan then turned provider on the attacking side of the ball, with some nice short passes during the Hurricanes silky back line moves.

It’s not the first impressive performance of the season from Sullivan, where a selfless pass to Cameron Roigard was a big part of a solid all round outing against the Highlanders two weeks ago.

Is this the start of New Zealand teams wrestling back momentum?

All four Australian teams have been exceptional to start the 2025 campaign, with all four occupying spots in the competition’s top six going into round seven of Super Rugby Pacific.

There hasn’t been too many New Zealand vs Australian derbies so far this season though, only eight in fact, so in the last nine regular season rounds, there will be many more trans-Tasman matches to come.

The Hurricanes completely outplayed the Waratahs on Friday night, there’s no question about that, but it will be in weeks to come when teams from Australia and New Zealand will battle to see which nations’ franchises make up the top six.

The Chiefs and Crusaders sit pretty up at the top of the table, but after the Hurricanes’ convincing win on Friday night, they have snuck into the top six on 14 points, meaning both countries have three sides each in the playoff spots.

Don’t forget about Ruben Love…

Ruben Love didn’t score against the Waratahs on Friday night, but he didn’t need to.

Love was absolutely electric with the ball in hand, setting up four tries on the night, and running rampant for the Hurricanes.

The play of the night was his outrageous out-the-back 20m pass, that gifted Ngatungane Punivai the easiest try he will ever score. Love had no right to execute this type of pass under that much pressure, but that’s the type of freedom Laidlaw has let Love play with in 2025.

There’s been talk amongst fans in New Zealand of the Beauden Barrett, and Damian McKenzie All Blacks backline pivot, but if Robertson wants some more razzle dazzle in his backline, he shouldn’t look too far past the 23-year-old Hurricanes fullback.

At least talent works hard!

The saying goes, hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.

Joseph Suaalii’s performance shows that this statement doesn’t apply to him.

Not everything has gone to plan in Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii’s transition to Rugby Union, but there is no denying he’s doing everything he can to be an exceptional, world-class Wallaby.

Like mentioned above, Suaalii’s attack was mostly nullified, but on defence, the Waratahs midfielder showed up time and time again.

Suaalii had two try saving tackles, one on Punivai and the second on Kini Naholo. This showed that when the attack isn’t going his way, he’s still a class player, capable of helping his team in more ways than one.

The attacking fluency will come with time, but for now, it’s both exciting and impressive to see the maturity of such a high-profile convert.

It was Leota last week, but it’s Gleeson this week

There’s been lots of talk around Rob Leota’s 2025 form, same with Du’Plessis Kirifi who is the form seven in New Zealand. But Langi Gleeson has once again showcased why the Waratahs loose forward has been in and around the Wallabies since bursting on the scene in 2022.

Last week, Rob Leota was exceptional in a historic victory over the Brumbies, but this week, Gleeson was the standout, carrying a game high 16 times in his 80-minute performance in Wellington.

The Wallabies loose forwards are stacked, players like Carlo Tizzano, Harry Wilson, Fraser McReight and Rob Valetini that are all playing international level in their own right, but Gleeson is well and truely in that mix.