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‘Not necessarily a bad thing’: Canes flyhalf responds to ‘underdogs’ claim

(Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)

Earlier this week, former All Blacks backrower Steven Bates pinned the “underdogs” tag on the Hurricanes ahead of their top-of-the table clash with the undefeated Chiefs on Saturday.

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The Hurricanes have only lost one match this season, and it was a thriller against the Blues at Sky Stadium in round three.

But that one defeat is a minor blip on what has been an otherwise sensational start to this year’s Super Rugby Pacific campaign from the Canes.

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Coach Jason Holland has named a star-studded side ahead of their crunch clash with the Chiefs in Wellington, which includes an exciting halves pairing of Cam Roigard and Aidan Morgan.

Morgan was handed the playmaking reins last weekend after one-Test All Black Brett Cameron sustained an injury during the round six win over the Western Force in Palmerston North.

At just 21 years of age, Morgan is just a couple of days away from arguably the biggest match of his young career so far.

When asked about Steven Bates’ view on the Hurricanes’ status going into this highly anticipated clash, Morgan said “flying under the radar is not necessarily a bad thing.”

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“The Chiefs are the in-form side at the momenta and their line-up is stacked with lots of talent,” Morgan told RugbyPass.

“We’re really driving what we can control in our systems, making sure we’re executing our plays, nailing our roles defensively and offensively, and make sure we’re playing in the right end of the park.

“I can’t speak for the whole team but for me personally, I think flying under the radar is not necessarily a bad thing.

“But by no stretch can we think of ourselves as a lesser team.

“I think (with) the players we’ve got, (we have) the talent and the skills we need to be able to put a good performance and get a good win.

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“We certainly believe in the quality of this group and the quality that we have, that we can go all the way in this competition and that’s what we try to do each week that we get out there.”

Morgan has started a number of matches in the Hurricanes’ No. 10 jersey before, but will bring up an exciting milestone against the Chiefs.

Last weekend’s thriller against the Highlanders was the first-fives first start against New Zealand opposition at Super Rugby Pacific level.

But this weekend, Morgan will look to lead the Hurricanes’ attack against Kiwi opposition at home for the first time – and it doesn’t much tougher than the Chiefs at the moment.

“I had a lot of runs at the end of last season against the Australian sides,” he added.

“That was my first New Zealand derby match that I started in last week so another milestone ticked off (this week)

“But for me, it’s just whatever opposition or whatever game, it’s (about) turning up and making sure that I get this team firing and I put out a performance that I’m proud of.”

Morgan has plenty of attacking weapons outside him, including the likes of Jordie Barrett and in-form winger Salesi Rayasi.

For a young playmaker, it makes his “philosophy” quite simple: get them the ball.

“It makes my job a lot easier and sort of my philosophy on how I try to get this attack going is to get the ball into the right people’s hands at the right time.

“Having those attacking weapons outside (me), the likes of Jordie (Barrett) and Sass (Salesi Rayasi), and even Billy Proctor, Peter Umaga-Jensen, those sort of players that have game breaking ability.

“Making sure that the ball is in their hands at the right time and giving them the best opportunities to use their talents, so that’s what I try to do in terms of driving this attack, especially in phase play.”

The Hurricanes’ top-of-the-table clash against the undefeated Chiefs is set to kick-off at 2.35pm at Sky Stadium, Wellington, on Saturday.

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Tomasi 572 days ago

The Canes shat the bed in the first half against the Blues back in March but came home with a soggy sail in the second. The last few games have been the opposite. Clichéd, but if they can string an 80-min performance together then they're a chance against the Chiefs. Chiefs are rightly favourites, but I wonder if they'll be refreshed from the bye or if it'll halt their momentum a bit, I'm hoping the latter.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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