The Jordie Barrett Show rolls into Dunedin as Hurricanes beat Highlanders to claim first win of season
Fullback Jordie Barrett scored all of his team's points as the Wellington-based Hurricanes held on after a strong 50 minutes to beat the Dunedin-based Highlanders 30-19 for their first win of the season in Super Rugby Aotearoa.
Barrett scored three tries, converted them and kicked three penalty goals to set a new individual points-scoring record in the New Zealand domestic competition.
The Hurricanes were 0-3 going into the game at the Highlanders' Forsyth Barr Stadium and the teams now share matching 1-4 records in the New Zealand competition, well behind the unbeaten Crusaders.
Barrett landed the first of his trademark long-range penalties in the sixth minute, then hit the backline at pace to score the first try of the match which gave the Hurricanes a 10-0 lead after 10 minutes.
The Highlanders struck back with a try to lock Bryn Evans before Barrett's second try put the Hurricanes ahead 17-7 at halftime. With a minute to go to the break, the Hurricanes attacked through the middle, then went wide and Barrett exchanged passes with Salesi Rayasi to finish off a slick team try.
All Blacks prop Tyrel Lomax spent 10 minutes in the sin bin in the first half but atoned in the 44th minute when he timed his pass to Barrett, who ran a superb line to cross near the posts, completing his hat trick.
Barrett's conversion and a 54th-minute penalty put the Hurricanes ahead 27-7.
The Highlanders rallied strongly with a try after 62 minutes to winger Connor Garden-Bachop, and reduced the lead to eight points with a try three minutes from fulltime to replacement Thomas Umaga-Jensen.
Barrett relieved pressure on the Hurricanes with his final penalty just after the fulltime siren.
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Look there are a few unarguable facts here that are very clear. SARU was close to bankruptcy with SR, bailed out by the Lions and they need the URC and EPCR. Inclusion of SA teams in URC has been a great for for ALL concerned, from a rugby perspective and financially, moreover there is massive growth yet to come. The GP is in financial trouble and this will be the catalyst for EPCR change to further cement the Boks.
If this all plays out with even greater rewards for the urc AND the Top14 & GP via EPCR, the 6N will become 7N. Nz and Aus NEED to get their version firing with Japan & the PI’s, otherwise they will find themselves increasingly regressing…
Go to commentsPerofeta came back and was available for the eoyt right? Or was that why Love was in the squad (but got injured in the last week)?
It was such a frustrating year. Perofeta looked a service stop gap until Jordan was fit, but then got injured. Plummer was selected because of Pero's injury and dmac shat the bed in the second half in Australia but Clarke (?) got himself binned at the 65 min mark so Plummer couldn't come on (at least with the risk adverse Razors thinking) when he was planned to.
So many other exciting opportunities that could have happened without injuries, but then theyre probably balanced by knowing Sititi probably wouldn't have been given a chance without multiple injuries happened.
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