Hosting the Crusaders at Home in DHL Super Rugby Pacific in Wellington on Friday has heightened the hurricanes’ desire to keep winning at home to help in their praying to secure a playoff place.
Coach Clark Laidlaw said the Hurricanes know that if they can put two or three profit together, that will have a significant impact on the playoffs.
“We’re well aware that we need to keep winning at home and pick up maybe one or two on the road.”
Laidlaw said their review of their 18-19 loss to the blues at the weekend showed that their problems areas did not need a lot of training.
“Some of the stuff that we want to improve take training, some of the off-the-ball stuff, some of the communication areas that you can change quickly, being alive to opportunities that were in the game them again do not need a lot of training.
“We had a really good chat. We’ve looked at some of those pictures and footage around what looks like, and we’ve got the solutions.
“We’ve got to show conviction, we’ve got to stick to the plan. We’ve got confidence in how we’re building our weeks.”
Laidlaw said he did not believe missed goal-kicking chances were the reason they lost to the blues at the weekend.
“Riley housa was disappointed, but we’re not losing towing over that part of the game. We’ve just got to get back to practice and being a bit better.”
They still had ruben love as both a kicking and first five-eighths option, while if callum harkin was selected for fullback he would be another goal-cicking possibility.
Laidlaw said that, at the moment, they think love is probably better at fullback.
“What I like about ruben at the minute is he really wants to contribute. He wants to take ownership of stuff, he wants to drive the team, we’re enjoying that but he does not have to have 10 on his back and start at 10 to do that. First-Five. ”
Wing Ngane Punivai said they got everything right against the waratahs 10 days ago, but against the blues, they missed things, especially defensively, and the game had turned into an arm wrestle they lost.
Punivai said he feels found a home after being associated with three other franchises before that, although he grew up in wellington and the hurricanes were his team growing up.
“I have been around a few teams and in the past my body hasn’t played ball. I feel i’ve found a home here and they’ve helped me to get my body right and get on the field consistently. The last few weeks play-to-back 80 minutes has been awesome for me.”
The loss to the blues was disappointing, and with a short turnaround, it was essential to focus on learning quickly and moving on.
“You can tell from this competition that every game’s going to be close and it’s going to be a big battle every game.
“You can never expect the crusaders to have two bad seasons in a row. They back to the crusaders of old and they’ve got confidence about them. They’ll be coming up here on Friday night to score some points, and we’ve got to stop that and score points ours.”
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