Watch every second of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nTheir 104 tries this season is a competition record, as is their 685 points.<\/p>\n
The Chiefs were equally emphatic in a 49-12 semi-final romp against the Crusaders.<\/p>\n
While the ‘Canes haven’t contested a final since winning their only title in 2016, the Chiefs have lined up in the last three finals — although they’ve lost them all.<\/p>\n
Laidlaw said their opponents have a clear advantage in big match experience.<\/p>\n
“The Chiefs are rolling into their fourth final, so they know what it takes to get there.<\/p>\n
“It probably makes them favourites I guess, having been there the last three times,” Laidlaw said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got to try and make sure we put enough pressure on them to see how that feels, being in their fourth final after losing a few.<\/p>\n
“They were exceptional at taking opportunities against the Crusaders.”<\/p>\n
Laidlaw was also wary of a Chiefs side who have won 10 of their last 11 games, including a 22-17 victory in ‘super point’ extra time when the two teams met in April.<\/p>\n
Both sides feature a host of contenders for inclusion in new All Blacks coach Dave Rennie’s first squad of the year, to be announced two days after Saturday’s final.<\/p>\n
Much intrigue will surround the clash of the fly-halves.<\/p>\n
Veteran playmaker Damian McKenzie was in supreme touch throughout the Chiefs’ semi-final in Hamilton while vastly-improved ‘Canes fly-half Ruben Love was forced off in the second half with a calf injury.<\/p>\n
Laidlaw said the return this season of Jordie Barrett had been a major boost, after the influential All Blacks inside centre missed the 2025 campaign to play a season at Irish club Leinster.<\/p>\n
Barrett’s midfield combination with Billy Proctor has been dangerous all season, helping wings Fehi Fineanganofo and Josh Moorby score a competition-leading 16 and 15 tries respectively.<\/p>\n
“Jordie’s ability to keep his feet moving, keep talking, keep putting other people in position is genuinely world class,” Laidlaw said.<\/p>\n
“He’s an outstanding rugby player. We missed him last year. You can feel the difference, can’t you, off the ball.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coach Clark Laidlaw says his Hurricanes will be underdogs in the Super Rugby final against the Chiefs despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,5386,10569,760,85,48013],"class_list":["post-736021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chiefs","tag-hurricanes","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736021","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=736021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}