Super Rugby Review: Hurricanes

Editor

With the Super Rugby finalists now decided we take a look at those teams who missed out. Lastly, it's the Hurricanes.

It was another strong showing from the Hurricanes in the 2017 Super Rugby season although they could not defend their title.

Winning 12 of their 15 Round robin matches, the Wellington outfit finished second on the New Zealand conference with 58 points, five behind the Crusaders.

This ensured they qualified for the playoffs, where they easily dispatched the Brumbies in the quarter-finals. They then faced the Lions in the semi-finals in a repeat of last year's final in which the Hurricanes won 20-3 which was the last time the sides met.

However, this time around, the men from Johannesburg were able to exact their revenge, emerging 44-29 victors and eliminating the defending champions from the competition.

Along the way, the Hurricanes scored the most tries in this year's competition and in Super Rugby history. They racked up 97 tries, breaking the previous record set by the Lions last year of 81.

In Ngani Laumape and Vince Aso, they had the competition's top try-scorers, with the centre pairing scoring 15 and 14 respectively.

They lost only to the Chiefs (twice), the Crusaders (once) and Lions. However, they were the only side in this year's competition to beat the Crusaders, which will surely be the highlight of their season.

2017 saw the rise of Jordie Barrett and the fall of Julian Savea. The younger Barrett was so good he often stole the limelight from older brother Beauden while Savea was dropped for the semi-final in which Nehe Milner-Skudder and Wes Goosen were the preffered. wings

TJ Perenara had an excellent season and thrived in the captaincy role, deputising for Dane Coles, who was sidelined for four months with concussion issues.

The Hurricanes scored an average of 39.4 points and 5.8 tries per game, the highest of any side in the competition which made them the most potent attacking force in the competition as they delighted rugby audiences week in and week out.

Best player: 2017 will be a year to remember for Jordie Barrett. The 20-year-old enjoyed an excellent season and was rewarded with a call-up to the All Blacks squad, where he made his debut in the run-on side in the third Test against the British and Irish Lions. For the Hurricanes, Barrett took over the core goal-kicking responsibilities from older brother Beauden and racked up 135 points, making him the fifth-highest points-scorer in the competition. He chipped in with seven tries and topped the charts for most offloads with 33. He also boasted a goal-kicking percentage of 78 percent.