1
Kini Naholo powers Hurricanes to upset win over Brumbies In Canberra
By AAP
The ACT Brumbies have blown a golden chance to maintain contact with the Super Rugby Pacific ladder leaders after an upset loss to the Hurricanes in Canberra.
ADVERTISEMENT
The third-placed Brumbies hadn’t lost at home to the Hurricanes, who sit eighth on the table, since 2017 and had won five of their past six clashes.
But they couldn’t catch the men from Wellington, going down in a thriller 35-29 on Saturday.
Burly Hurricanes winger Kini Naholo steamrolled his rivals to score two tries in a stand-out performance in the capital.
Australia’s top-ranked side started well, with skipper Allan Alaalatoa burrowing his way over the line in the eighth minute.
But in keeping with the theme of the night, each time they scored the visitors answered with a try of their own.
Centre Billy Proctor was first across the tryline, running on to a massive cut-out pass from Callum Harkin, followed up by Ngantungane Punivai to give the Hurricanes a 10-5 lead.
Brumbies flanker Luke Reimer then sniffed out a try, only for Naholo to hit back three minutes later after some neat lead-up work by Ruben Love and Harkin, with the Hurricanes taking a 20-15 lead into halftime.
ADVERTISEMENT
With the Brumbies only managing 32 per cent of possession and 23 per cent of territory, they had to work for every point, but newly re-signed Len Ikitau came up trumps with the first try of the second half.
But Naholo used his speed and brute strength to cut a swathe through the Brumbies defence, and his team were out to an eight-point lead, which soon became 13 thanks to Punivai’s second.
In typical Brumbies fashion they kept coming and were eventually rewarded with winger Andy Muirhead crossing in the corner in the 70th minute, with Noah Lolesio adding the extras from the sideline.
The home side had plenty of time to score the winning try, but a series of poor decisions and errors proved costly.
ADVERTISEMENT
They can rename the All Blacks to the Island poachers. Only reason Fiji/Moana is in super rugby is to raid them of talent. Sad for rugby
I was actually muling over the idea that if Big Jim isn’t selected for the All Blacks this year I’d love for him to become a cornerstone of the Fijian midfield and get a big contract over in Japan.
Fiji don’t necessarily need another midfielder but I reckon he could be their best anyway.
The problem is CR New Zealand has been a destination for Islanders going back centuries, and it’s teams have built great rapport with them. So it’s automatically like a second home, and a lot of them simply don’t want to leave, and attaining All Black status is the only way you can achieve a reasonable income here.
If WR was able to help in some way, and in helping the Drua and Moana it will help no end with those players, simply being able to receive a good wage for their first home team, or their Kiwi SR team, is what’s going to make the biggest difference to this problem/situation.
Think you’ll find MP is set up to poach Kiwi and Aussie born players. That’s why most of their roster is NZers and based in NZ.
Also AB’s one of the most-home grown sides in international rugby, with most of their ‘foreign’ players having come here as kids with their parents. You can’t say the same for the Tongan and Samoan squads these days, which much like MP, are filled with Kiwis and Aussies. So, who is poaching from who. Exactly. You’re welcome.
What a douchey comment, but I’ll bite. Pacific Islanders have been coming to New Zealand to live and work to provide for their families for generations. Of course there are players that are going to represent NZ at some point. Unlike some other countries. Meanwhile, how many Kiwis are in the Irish team? A few Saffas walking around in Scotland. How many Africans in the English team? How many New Caledonians and PI players in the French team? Should the Dutch South African players go back to representing Holland? It’s a global sport.
Thanks for your input CR. My life is now fulfilled after reading your inspiring post….
Suggest you look at where the majority of the Moana team are born CR, ignorant comment.
Hard to tell how quick this guy (Naholo) is, but lord he takes some stopping! Could he be the guy who takes Clarke and Telea out of AB left wing contention? and given how poor Reece has been in the AB jersey (sad, because I love his energy) could he take the right wing slot?
Did Reece used to have this power? I know I enjoyed his DMac like runs when he first came about, but the guys character, and now I also don’t seem to enjoy his runs for some reason anymore. Has he even got bigger legs and less agility now? Clarke had an amazing season all considered last year, after he decided to work on speed by dropping a few kg’s.
Kini still seems to have the raw explosive power, which generates as quick feet and acceleration, but I’m not like his long term prospects with aging.
Given how conservative they were last year, to the surprise of many, I’d expect Razor and co to stick with Reece and Clarke. Unfortunately.
Reece not the quickest wing and sadly His SRP form never translates to the International stage.l hope they give someone else a shot this year Kini or Emoni Narawa both take some stopping and are more versatile