Brett Cameron’s late penalty sealed a victory over the Chiefs that lifted the Hurricanes to club house lead in Super Rugby and has made it much more difficult for the Brumbies to grab a top two finish.
Cameron stepped up in place of Jordie Barrett – who had blood streaming from a nose wound – to calmly pot the long ranger after Chiefs skipper Luke Jacobson gave away a controversial penalty for not rolling away, with 78 minutes on the clock.
Jacobson argued he had been pinned in after landing on top of Barrett after the tackle and couldn’t go anywhere, although he was gracious when quizzed about the incident post-match, saying the team needed to work on their discipline.
The victory put the Hurricanes on top with 51 points, one ahead of the Blues who play the Crusaders on Saturday. The Brumbies were third on 43 points ahead of their later kick off against the Rebels.
The Canes overcame a red card in the first half to Raymond Tuputupu and led until the 70th minute when Damian McKenzie levelled the score at 17-all.
The Hurricanes will want the Chiefs to go to Auckland and beat the Blues next Saturday. The Hurricanes finish against the Highlanders.
The Hurricens struggled early on and hooker Raymond Tuputupu was yellow carded for a shoulder to the head of lock Tupou Vaa’i. The card was upgraded to a 20-minute red.
Damian McKenzie missed the ensuing penalty attempt and the Canes opened the scoring after prop Xavier Numia stormed up the middle and soon after went through Shaun Stevenson’s tackle on 18 minutes.
The game became 14v14 when Chiefs loose forward Kaylum Boshier was yellow-carded after a trip on TJ Perenara.
The Canes scored a second and it was the highlight of the match, finished off by Barrett. The Canes led 14-0 at the break but the Chiefs hit back straight after the break when Etene Nanai-Seturo and Anton Lienert-Brown helped Emoni Narawa over.
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