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First-half Hurricanes blitz blows Waratahs away
By Jack Davies
The Hurricanes ran in five first-half tries on their way to claiming a 38-28 Super Rugby victory over the Waratahs on Friday.
Ngani Laumape, Beauden Barrett and Jordie Barrett all crossed inside the opening 12 minutes as the home side raced into a 21-0 lead in Wellington, before Ned Hanigan pulled a try back for the Waratahs with the elder Barrett in the sin bin.
Two more touchdowns courtesy of Wes Goosen and Mark Abbott sent the Hurricanes in with a 33-7 lead at the break, but the visitors refused to go down without a fight.
Bryce Hegarty and Jake Gordon crossed the whitewash early in the second period to close the gap, although Laumape's second try afforded the Hurricanes more daylight.
Andrew Kellaway scored with 10 minutes left to play as the Waratahs' comeback continued, but that was as far as it went, with the Hurricanes holding on despite having Beauden Barrett sent off two minutes from time.
The All Blacks fly-half saw red having been shown two yellow cards for deliberate infringements.
Victory lifts the defending champions to second in the New Zealand conference, while the Waratahs have one win from their last six matches.
FULL-TIME: 10 try battle as @NSWWaratahs enjoy strong 2nd half but @Hurricanesrugby always in control #HURvWAR https://t.co/Kzw0q5Cd3L pic.twitter.com/Y9w3Q9bZe0
— Super Rugby (@SuperRugby) April 7, 2017
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Latest Comments
There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.
SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.
Go to commentsYep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?
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