{"id":484456,"date":"2026-06-18T23:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T23:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/484456\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T23:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T23:10:11","slug":"one-drought-to-end-as-hurricanes-chiefs-clash-for-super-rugby-pacific-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/484456\/","title":{"rendered":"One drought to end as Hurricanes, Chiefs clash for Super Rugby Pacific title"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hurricanes take on the Chiefs in sold out game this weekend<\/p>\n

Morning Report<\/p>\n

Last time the Hurricanes and Chiefs met, golden-point extra time was required to find a winner.<\/p>\n

Now, with a Super Rugby Pacific title on the line and little separating the competition’s top two teams, they will do it all again in Wellington on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes earned home advantage by finishing top of the regular-season standings and enter the final as the first team in Super Rugby history to score 100 tries in a season.<\/p>\n

The Chiefs arrive after a dominant 49-12 semi-final win over the Crusaders and hope to end a 13-year wait for a championship.<\/p>\n

Sky Sport commentator Grant Nisbett, who will call the game, believed the teams were hard to separate.<\/p>\n

“There’s no doubt that these are the two best teams in the competition and have been right throughout the season,” Nisbett said.<\/p>\n

“When you look at the Hurricanes forward pack, it’s better than it’s been for many, many years. The Chiefs are the same and there’s strikepower in both teams.”<\/p>\n

\"Cortez<\/p>\n

Chiefs players celebrate a try.<\/p>\n

Andrew Cornaga\/Photosport<\/p>\n

Nisbett did not expect a repeat of last weekend’s highscoring semifinals, when the Hurricanes thrashed the Blues<\/a> 57-21 and the Chiefs crushed the Crusaders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes are chasing just their second Super Rugby title and first since 2016.<\/p>\n

Lower Hutt mayor and rugby commentator Fauono Ken Laban said success had been elusive, despite the franchise boasting some outstanding teams over the years.<\/p>\n

“One title in 30 years,” Laban said. “Over the course of the Hurricanes history, they’ve had some fantastic teams and some fantastic players.<\/p>\n

“They’re a team that, on paper, should have won multiple titles, but of course, the game’s not played on paper.”<\/p>\n

Laban also believed picking a winner was hard.<\/p>\n

“It’s all set up for a thrilling game,” he said. “I’ve been trying to find where there may be an advantage, but it’s difficult.<\/p>\n

“The Hurricanes are probably going to field eight All Blacks, the Chiefs are going to field seven, so that makes essentially half the players on the park are All Blacks.”<\/p>\n

\"Hurricanes<\/p>\n

Asafo Aumua would love to win the Super Rugby title for the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

DJ Mills<\/p>\n

With up to a dozen players leaving the Hurricanes<\/a> at the end of the season, they’re well aware this could be their best chance at a title in the foreseeable future and hooker Asafo Aumua said it would mean “everything” to the team to win on Friday night.<\/p>\n

The Chiefs will be equally as motivated, after not winning a title since 2013 and losing the last three finals.<\/p>\n

All Blacks midfielder Quinn Tupaea, who was named Super Rugby Player of the Year<\/a> earlier this week, said the Chiefs weren’t bothered by their past failures.<\/p>\n

“It hasn’t really been spoken about much this week,” Tupaea said. “It’s always going to be brought up from the media and fans always reminding us, but it’s a new group, new coaching staff, new outlook and boys have a lot of experience in these sort of games.<\/p>\n

“We just need to show up on the day and play our rugby.”<\/p>\n

\"Quinn<\/p>\n

Quinn Tupaea is Super Rugby’s 2026 Player of the Year.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Photosport Ltd 2026 www.photosport.nz<\/p>\n

A crowd of about 35,000 will be at the final<\/a> and Hurricanes assistant coach Jamie Mackintosh hoped that would give the hosts an edge.<\/p>\n

“We worked really hard during the season to be consistent and finish up the top, and give ourselves a right to try and get home playoffs,” Mackintosh said.<\/p>\n

“You just get an awesome energy and certainly having a full ‘Tin’, it’s going to add to the occasion and it’s going to be really exciting.”<\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

Hurricanes ‘superfan’ Andrew Grant and son Connor.<\/p>\n

Andrew Grant<\/p>\n

Hurricanes ‘superfan’ Andrew Grant lives in Auckland, but he and son Connor have travelled thousands of kilometres this season to be at the Hurricanes games.<\/p>\n

While pundits are having trouble picking a winner, Grant isn’t.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be a tough game,” he said. “The Chiefs are a cracker team as well, but it’s a bit of a revenge game for us.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s maybe a 35-22 victory to the ‘Canes and for us to lift that title.”<\/p>\n

The Grants should have plenty of fellow Hurricanes supporters alongside them on Saturday night, but with about 17,000 tickets snapped up by people living outside Wellington, a significant portion of Chiefs fans is expected in the crowd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hurricanes take on the Chiefs in sold out game this weekend Morning Report Last time the Hurricanes and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-484456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}