Calamitous first-half kicking gave the ACT Brumbies no hope as the table-topping Hurricanes struck a blow for New Zealand rugby in a 45-12 Super Round win.<\/p>\n
The bonus point victory pushed the Hurricanes (7-2) to the top of the ladder and left the Brumbies (5-5) in danger of slipping to sixth, after the Crusaders had jumped them into fourth on Friday thanks to a bonus-point win against the NSW Waratahs.<\/p>\n
It was the Brumbies’ first loss to New Zealand opposition in five games this season. But two losses to Fijian Drua – as well as defeats against the NSW Waratahs and Queensland Reds in Canberra – have undone that good work.<\/p>\n
New Zealand sides now occupy the top four spots on the ladder, although the Queensland Reds can improve to fourth with a win over the Blues in Saturday’s late game.<\/p>\n
Hurricanes winger Fehi Fineanganofo (four tries) ran rampant, notching a first-half hat-trick thanks to quick feet and slick hands in a Ruben Love-led backline.<\/p>\n
The Brumbies were dealt a blow before kick-off, with talisman prop Allan Alaalatoa ruled out of the game and next week’s clash with the Reds due to concussion.<\/p>\n
And it got no better for Stephen Larkham’s men in the first of two Anzac Day clashes at Christchurch’s sold-out One NZ Stadium.<\/p>\n
Twice in the first 40 minutes, flyhalf Declan Meredith kicked the ball dead in goal attempting to find touch after winning a penalty.<\/p>\n
He was not alone though. Tom Wright struggled with his in-game kicking while Ryan Lonergan and Andy Muirhead both pushed kicks dead to kill any momentum.<\/p>\n
Some poor defence and line-out execution also hurt the side, Fineanganofo’s third, after back-to-back Brumbies knock-ons making it 19-0 at halftime.<\/p>\n
Larkham replaced prop James Slipper with Blake Schoupp at halftime while Tane Edmed relieved Meredith.<\/p>\n
They had some joy, with Corey Toole’s flick pass as he went into touch finding David Feliuai for a Brumbies try.<\/p>\n
But the Hurricanes hit right back, the ball kept alive before winger Josh Moorby crashed over for the first of his two tries.<\/p>\n
Fineanganofo was able to play to the crowd before jotting down his fourth try, beating Edmed to a loose ball after two Brumbies passes completely missed their mark.<\/p>\n
Brumbies replacement Toby Macpherson was denied a try on review when officials deemed he knocked on when reaching for the line.<\/p>\n
Toole got one back with a runaway effort with 10 minutes to go, but the Hurricanes replied with two more tries of their own to complete the hiding.<\/p>\n
Hurricanes 45\u00a0(Tries:\u00a0Fineanganofo 4, Moorby 2, Rova; Cons: Love 5)\u00a0def ACT Brumbies 12\u00a0(Tries: Toole, Feliuai; Cons: Edmed)<\/p>\n
Teams<\/p>\n
Hurricanes:\u00a015 Callum Harkin, 14 Josh Moorby, 13 Billy Proctor, 12 Jordie Barrett (co-captain), 11 Fehi Fineanganofo, 10 Ruben Love, 9 Cam Roigard, 8 Brayden Iose, 7 Du\u2019Plessis Kirifi (co-captain), 6 Devan Flanders, 5 Warner Dearns, 4 Caleb Delany, 3 Tevita Mafileo, 2 Raymond Tuputupu, 1 Siale Lauaki
\n\tReplacements:\u00a016 Asafo Aumua, 17 Xavier Numia, 18 Pasilio Tosi, 19 Brad Shields, 20 Peter Lakai, 21 Ereatara Enari, 22 Jove Rova, 23 Josh Gray<\/p>\n
Brumbies:\u00a015 Tom Wright, 14 Andy Muirhead, 13 Kadin Pritchard, 12 David Feliuai, 11 Corey Toole, 10 Declan Meredith, 9 Ryan Lonergan (captain), 8 Tuaina Taii Tualima, 7 Rory Scott, 6 Rob Valetini, 5 Nick Frost, 4 Lachlan Shaw, 3 Rhys van Nek, 2 Billy Pollard, 1 James Slipper
\n\tReplacements:\u00a016 Lachlan Lonergan, 17 Blake Schoupp, 18 Darcy Breen, 19 Toby MacPherson, 20 Luke Reimer, 21 Klayton Thorn, 22 Tane Edmed, 23 Ollie Sapsford<\/p>\n
Referee:\u00a0Paul Williams
\n\tAssistant referees:\u00a0Angus Gardner, Angus Mabey
\n\tTMO:\u00a0Brett Cronan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calamitous first-half kicking gave the ACT Brumbies no hope as the table-topping Hurricanes struck a blow for New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-409999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}