Hurricanes are Super Rugby top qualifiers

The Hurricanes, who finished the regular season with 53 points, will have to wait to find out their quarter-final opponents, with the Lions’ final match against the Jaguares having playoffs implications.

Replacement flanker Callum Gibbins then put them into bonus point territory with 10 minutes remaining.

The stumbling Lions handed the Hurricanes top spot on the Super Rugby ladder and a potential financial bonanza for the Wellington-based franchise in the next three weeks.

A defeat may result in the Sharks having to pack up and go overseas tomorrow night for their play-off, while Lions fans will be hoping the Ross Cronjé-led side get the business done to finish first.It’s a big task for the so-called “second-stringers” as the Jaguares have hit some good form since the global break and they’re always a hard side to play against on home soil.

The Lions, finishing in second place, will now face seven-time champions the Crusaders at Ellis Park in a playoff which is immeasurably tougher than the one, against the Sharks, which they surrendered when they fell out of first place.

With conference winners hosting next week’s quarter-finals, two New Zealand teams must travel to South Africa while the Highlanders will be in Canberra on Friday to meet the Brumbies, a team who accrued nine fewer competition points. Both conceded privileged positions and earned immeasurably more hard playoffs tasks than they might have been facing.

After last night stunning the Crusaders in Christchurch to leap from seventh to first in the overall standings, the Hurricanes’ lofty position was confirmed when an understrength Lions lost to the Jaguares in Buenos Aires this morning.

That was the nature of a round in which nearly everything was in flux until the final whistle ended the regular season.

The Chiefs began brightly with an early try to winger Toni Pulu and held a 7-5 lead at halftime, but they lost all momentum when blindside flanker Tom Sanders was given a yellow card for a unsafe tackle in the 54th minute.

“The Crusaders are a great team, they’ve proved it in the past”, said Lions captain Ross Cronje.

Meanwhile, the last round of the Super Rugby matches saw Hurricanes defeat the Crusaders 35-10, the Highlanders defeated the Chiefs 25-15, the Brumbies beat the Force 24-10, the Stormers thrashed the Kings 52-24, the Bulls beat the Cheetahs 43-17.