Hurricanes head coach Chris Boyd has played down the Hurricanes favourites tag ahead of their Super Rugby Semi-final against the Chiefs at Westpac Stadium.
The Hurricanes coach believes that whichever team between the Hurricanes and the Chiefs sweeps up loose ball the best will win the match and progress to the final next week.
“I mean we’re reasonably optimistic, as are the Highlanders, but I think the Chiefs are the most optimistic side in the competition and you give them half a chance on the crumbs that get spilt (and) they’ll punish you for them. So our ability to scramble on defence and tidy up those crumbs is going to be crucial,” Boyd told the Dominion Post.
Boyd does not buy into the idea that his team are any better than the remaining four teams and says anyone can win the title.
“I think all four sides are capable of winning the Super Rugby title. I think they’re all good sides and are all playing pretty well now,” said Boyd.
“You would never have said it in weeks one, two or three but as the season’s progressed I think genuinely that the best four sides in the competition are left.”
The Hurricanes were edged 27-28 by the Chiefs earlier this year at Westpac Stadium in April and Boyd says that none of the players have forgotten that loss this week.
“We’ve looked at that (this week) and at the last half-a-dozen games of the Chiefs, as they would’ve done with us,” said Boyd.
“They’re playing slightly differently than they did then and so are we, so it’s a different contest,” he added.