Elias Rodriguez/PHOTOSPORT
Hurricanes halfback dives across to score in the second half.
At Sky Stadium, Wellington: Hurricanes 27 (Billy Proctor 39’, Cam Roigard 59’, Josh Moorby 69’, Brayden Iose 74’ tries; Brett Cameron 2 con, Jordie Barrett pen) Crusaders 26 (Leicester Fainga’anuku 3’, Codie Taylor 20’, Brayden Ennor 30’, Chay Fihaki 80+2’ tries; Richie Mo’unga 3 con) HT: 8-19
Yellow cards: Brayden Iose 20’, Codie Taylor 52’
A stunning solo try from No. 8 Brayden Iose completed the comeback as the Hurricanes rallied from 16 points down to shock the Crusaders 27-26 in Wellington on Saturday.
The Hurricanes scored 24 points without reply until replacement winger Chay Fihaki scored a consolation try after the fulltime siren to claim their biggest win of the Super Rugby Pacific season one week out from the finals series.
Down 19-3 after just 30 minutes, the Hurricanes looked dead and buried. But momentum swung in the home team’s favour when centre Billy Proctor scored a pivotal try right before halftime.
From there the second half was all the Hurricanes.
Halfback Cam Roigard cut the deficit with a try under the posts, his ninth of the campaign, after taking a short pass from Ardie Savea.
Fullback Josh Moorby then scored in the left corner with 11 minutes remaining to give the Hurricanes the lead for the first time in the match.
Iose got the crowd on their feet when the No. 8 picked the ball up from the back of a scrum, fended off Scott Barrett and brushed off another tackler before diving over in the right corner to complete the comeback, giving the Hurricanes a statement victory heading into a tough away quarterfinal against the Brumbies next weekend.
Despite claiming their most impressive win of the season, the Hurricanes were unable to improve on fifth place and will now head across the Tasman to face the Brumbies in the first round of the finals series.
Big moment
Proctor swung momentum in the Hurricanes’ favour when he dived across to score one minute before halftime. Roigard flung the ball out wide to Jordie Barrett, who got on the outside of Leicester Fainga’anuku and fended him off before slipping an offload for Proctor to score in the right corner.
MVP
Roigard thrust his name back into the conversation as an All Blacks bolter with a sublime performance at No. 9 and came away with a crucial try under the posts, igniting the Hurricanes’ second half comeback.
Match rating
9/10. Game of the season? The final round game had nothing riding on it with the Crusaders and Hurricanes’ locked into second and fifth respectively, but they still produced a classic, rewarding the big crowd that packed into Sky Stadium for the Hurricanes’ final home game.
Big picture
By finishing second, the Crusaders will host either Fijian Drua or Western Force in the quarterfinals next weekend while the Hurricanes, bouyed by Saturday’s win, will make the trek across the Tasman to face the Brumbies, a much tougher challenge, after finishing outside the top four. Interestingly, the Crusaders actually lost their last match against the Drua, played over in Fiji in round three, while the Hurricanes beat the Brumbies when they met in Wellington in round 10.
