All Black pivot Beauden Barrett scored 15 points and produced an almost flawless performance to see his Hurricanes side into their second consecutive Vodacom Super Rugby final at home after they beat the Chiefs 25-9 in Wellington on Saturday.
Barrett was exceptional in a side that had less territory and possession than they needed but still found a way to absorb the pressure and turn the Chiefs mistakes into points to find their way to the final.
Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd becomes only the third coach in Super Rugby history as well to get to two consecutive finals in his first two years in charge, and the result means that the table-topping Hurricanes will host next weekend’s final round of the competition no matter what happens in the other semifinal between the Emirates Lions and Highlanders.
On a night where the visitors showed there was little effects from the travel back from South Africa after their big win over the DHL Stormers, the Chiefs were left to kick themselves as they had almost 60 percent possession and territory and spent long periods in the Hurricanes 22m area without reward. (All these numerous mistakes may have been a travel factor kicking in. The hurricanes offside play was definitely a factor))
A massive 21 turnovers on the night – 13 mistakes in the 22m area alone – were the main reasons the Chiefs couldn’t find their normal free-flowing game, but also had very much to do with the exceptional defence of the home side, whose line speed was without parallel on the night.
If the Chiefs were to hand the Hurricanes any psychological advantage, it would have to have started in the first half, where despite dominance in the scrum up front and a string of penalties on the Hurricanes line, they failed to listen to the age old rugby mantra and take the points.
In all, four kickable penalties were turned down within a 10 minute period, and when the Hurricanes got away from their own line, they turned on the screws to head into halftime well ahead on the scoreboard.
The 15-9 lead at the break was built on the back of Barrett’s heroics, as the flyhalf made the first try early on in the game with a telling chip and collect, before turning on the pace to outstrip most of the defence, passing to Willie Halaholo metres from the line for the midfielder to score the first try.
Barrett’s second – which came shortly after they had weathered the big Chiefs storm – was exactly at the right time as he intercepted the ball on the halfway line and sprinted in untouched to give his side a good lead at the break.
The Chiefs only answer was through the boot of Damian McKenzie, whose three kicks were taken not because the Chiefs often wanted too, but because they needed some respite on the scoreboard.
The second half only went worse for the Chiefs as McKenzie was caught by the line-speed of the Canes early on behind his goalline, forcing the ball onto the ground for a 5m scrum turnover.
And from that scrum Victor Vito made no mistake as the switch flummoxed the defence, and allowed the No 8 to crash over the line after picking up at the base and going blind in a clever rouse.
The Chiefs continued to camp in the Canes half for most of the half, but never ever got really going, and had more than enough chances to finish moves, but never quite got around to doing so.
As the pressure ramped up, the Canes simply got stronger, and the Chiefs desperation took over. The more the backline tried, the less they were able to find the fluency that they had in their game all season.
And as the clock ticked down, the Hurricanes made sure of their place in the final, and now will look to go one step further than they did last year, where they lost the final game to the Highlanders.
