Hurricanes hold off Crusaders 38-31 in Wellington to stay top of Super Rugby Pacific
The Hurricanes have stayed top of the Super Rugby Pacific ladder after a 38-31 win over the defending champion Crusaders in Wellington, holding off a late equaliser attempt and walking away with a result that sharpens the run-in to the finals.
The visitors had every chance to drag the match into extra time but second-five David Havili, playing his 150th Super Rugby appearance, ended his milestone night with a kick the Hurricanes hammered straight back into touch, sealing what RNZ called a cracker in the capital.
For the home side, the breakout figure remained wing Fehi Fineanganofo, who crossed for his fifteenth try of the season and is now one short of equalling the Super Rugby record for tries in a single campaign jointly held by Australian Joe Roff and former Hurricanes flier Ben Lam. Fineanganofo’s pace and ability to finish in tight space have been the defining features of the Hurricanes’ attack this year, and the Crusaders found out again that giving him a sniff of space is rarely affordable.
The Crusaders had actually opened the scoring through flanker Leicester Fainga’anuku, who powered over from close range early on for a try that was very much in keeping with how he has reinvented his game since shifting from the wing into the loose forwards. Several penalty exchanges followed, but the home side’s tempo was building and they eventually went bang-bang before the break to demoralise the visitors.
Halfback Cam Roigard was the architect of both strikes that broke the game open. He laid one on for wing Josh Moorby, and finished another himself, sending the Hurricanes into halftime with a 24-10 lead and the dominant body language to match.
Crusaders halfback Noah Hotham gave his side a path back into the contest with a snipe and dummy from the base of a scrum, but the Hurricanes answered almost immediately when hooker Raymond Tuputupu ran the perfect short line off Roigard. That score appeared to lock the gate, and Fineanganofo’s record-chasing fifteenth then stretched the lead further.
The Crusaders were not done. Flanker Dom Gardiner rumbled over in the closing stages — replays appeared to show he lost the ball in the act of scoring, but the points stood — and the visitors lined up a charge at the home line in the final passages with the result still on a knife edge.
It was here that Havili’s milestone match took its sour turn. Rather than backing his side to find another lifeline, the experienced second-five elected to kick the ball away. The Hurricanes pounced, hammering it into touch to end the contest. RNZ described it as the forgettable decision that ended his 150th appearance, a harsh footnote for a player who has been one of the most reliable midfielders in the country for several seasons.
For the Hurricanes, the win is more than two competition points. Holding top spot through the Anzac block and into May means the side is well placed to lock in a home quarter-final and, if recent form holds, a home semi-final after that. The team has now built a habit of grinding through tight games rather than relying on the all-out attacking shootouts that defined earlier campaigns, and this latest match fitted that template.
For the Crusaders, the loss is not the disaster it might appear in isolation. They remain in the playoff mix and pushed the competition leaders to the wire on their own patch with several frontline players still rebuilding match fitness. There were positives in the scrum, in Fainga’anuku’s continuing transition to flanker, and in the way the side refused to fold when the scoreboard ran away from them in the second quarter.
Off the field, attention has already moved on to next year’s Super Round. The competition’s experiment of staging a full weekend of fixtures at one venue paid off in Christchurch last weekend, where the new Te Kaha stadium drew sellout crowds and a buzz that has the Crusaders pushing to host the event again, while the Blues are reportedly preparing a counter-bid to bring it north to Auckland. Whatever the verdict, administrators and broadcasters will have looked at the atmosphere in Wellington and concluded that the league’s best matches sell themselves regardless of the venue.
Friday night’s result also kept the conversation around the league firmly on the field. The Crusaders organisation has spent the early part of the campaign batting away questions about its rebuild and Te Kaha’s commercial future, while the Hurricanes have answered most of theirs with wins. Those who like a season narrative will note that the side leading the standings has done so without the depth of All Blacks regulars some of their rivals can call on, and is doing it with two of the best young halves in the competition driving the bus.
The Hurricanes now move on to the next round with a chance to put more distance between themselves and the chasing pack. The Crusaders will reset, knowing the road back to another title is going to require a level of consistency they have not yet found this campaign.
What did you make of the finish in Wellington — was Havili’s kick the wrong call, or had the Crusaders already run out of road by then? Have your say in the comments below.