\u201cIt seemed like the harder we tried, the worse things got out there.<\/p>\n
Stephen Larkham described the defeat as “embarrassing” and acknowledged the team let down their fans. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cFor our fans back in Australia, we appreciate your support, particularly the ones that follow us no matter what. We had an up-and-down season, and you rode it with us, and you know we managed to get through the finals, and there was probably some hope there.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we\u2019ve let you down, and we\u2019re sorry for that. And there\u2019s a lot of frustration internally as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brumbies started the season well but the wheels fell off, capped by defeat to bottom-dwellers Moana Pasifika in their final regular season game.<\/p>\n
It pushed the Brumbies down to sixth on the ladder and a date with the table-topping Hurricanes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been an inconsistent season for us, to say the least,\u201d Larkham said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a younger group, but there\u2019s no excuses.\u201d<\/p>\n
With All Blacks No 10 contender Ruben Love pulling the strings, the Hurricanes raced to a 31-0 lead, with Cam Roigard crossing twice, and Billy Proctor, Warner Dearns and Caleb Delany also dotting down.<\/p>\n
Replacement Ngane Punivai bagged a second-half hat-trick with Dearns collecting a second to complete the rout.<\/p>\n
Love was in the zone with the boot, kicking all nine conversions and adding a penalty.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019d offered me that scoreline yesterday when I was looking out my window, I would have bitten your hand off,\u201d assistant Hurricanes coach Bryn Evans told New Zealand media.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boys trusted the game that has been serving us so well this season. The boys really believe in the way we play.\u201d<\/p>\n
They will now meet the highest-ranked loser of the two remaining qualifying matches, between the Canterbury Crusaders and Auckland Blues, and Waikato Chiefs and Queensland Reds.<\/p>\n
– AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt seemed like the harder we tried, the worse things got out there. Stephen Larkham described the defeat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[348367,9490,302305,262428,64,63,66248,348366,3181,38019,186431,1635,10569,348365,2648,348364,760,85,6182,1643,3018,1928,25904],"class_list":["post-718349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-admitting","tag-after","tag-apologised","tag-apologises","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brumbies","tag-capitulation","tag-coach","tag-down","tag-embarrassing","tag-fans","tag-hurricanes","tag-larkham","tag-playoff","tag-rout","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-stephen","tag-super","tag-team","tag-their","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}