Super Rugby semi-finals confirmed

The Hurricanes, who lost to the Highlanders in last year’s final, joined the reigning champions in the last four but are guaranteed a home semi-final after finishing top of the regular season standings.

After the June break they have travelled to South Africa to take on the Southern Kings; then they flew to Argentina for a match with the Jaguares, then they returned home to New Zealand to face the Chiefs and this last weekend they travelled to Australia for the quarter-final showdown with the Brumbies. The Lions led 15-0 after 15 minutes and were ahead throughout, scoring five tries to the Crusaders’ three. “We knew tonight would be a battle and I am so proud of the boys”, Lions captain Warren Whiteley told reporters. We drove well, we scrummed well and our set-piece was strong. “And when you chase the game, you can make mistakes and allow them to score more points”. “Our start and our finish were fantastic”. “When we’ve been at our best this year, we’ve done the obvious well and had support coming from depth”.

The result was an eight-try lesson in attacking play. “No excuses, we gave it our all”. We basically got blown out of the water after 20 minutes.

“We changed a few things with the weather”, Hurricanes’ co-captain Perenara said.

On the other side of the draw, the Hurricanes are in the box seat for a second straight Super Rugby final, having won their quarterfinal against the Sharks. It is a record Sharks captain Tendai Mtawarira did not want to be part of, describing the South Africans performance as an “embarrassing effort” against the top-ranked New Zealanders.

Coles left the field early in the second half in serious pain, and coach Chris Boyd was afterwards subdued in his assessment of the Hurricanes’ most comprehensive win of the season. The Hurricanes led 13-0 after playing the first half into the teeth of a storm which had wind gusts of up to 140 kph (86 mph) and driving rain.

“At the end of the day, they were way too good for us”.

“We made a lot of costly errors, a lot of defensive errors”.

Vaea Fifita then broke through an April tackle to score the fourth of the game, and the faces on the Sharks’ players told their own story as the match was over as a contest with over half-an-hour remaining.TJ Perenara was up next as he dived through a non-existent Sharks defence to make it 34-0 before Brad Shields made it the ideal night for the hosts.

Marshall scored the second from a blindside move after the Hurricanes were gifted a scrum when a lineout delivery slithered through the hands of Sharks scrum-half Michael Claasens. From a tapped penalty, Uhila drove at the line and when the ball came free All Blacks scrumhalf Perenara found no opposition as he dived through a gap on the openside.