The Hurricanes held off a second half comeback from Melbourne’s Rebels to win 29-19 at Westpac Stadium in Wellington.
The Hurricanes made an explosive start to the match and ran in four first half tries while also keeping the Rebels scoreless in the opening half.
The second half however was all the Rebels who hit back with three tries of their own whilst keeping the Hurricanes scoreless for 35 minutes.
The Hurricanes only second half points came from a penalty kick five minutes from full-time when Jordie Barrett kicked a long-range penalty.
The result keeps up the Hurricanes pressure on the Crusaders who are the overall tournament leaders as the Wellington side are now six points behind the Christchurch side after they drew with the Sharks yesterday.
The Hurricanes scored the first points in the fourth minute when Ngani Laumape crashed through a series of Rebels tackles on his way to the tryline.
Beauden Barrett converted the try and three minutes later used his pace and added the Hurricanes second try which he also converted.
For Barrett’s try the Hurricanes moved the All Black 10 down the line to second centre where he got the ball at pace which allowed him to slice through the Rebels backs and score.
In the fourteenth minute the Hurricanes crossed the line again when Wes Goosen outpaced the Rebels backs who had been sucked in from 11 phases. Barrett hit the post with the conversion.
Six minutes later the Hurricanes hard running helped produce their fourth and final try when Asafo Aumua flattened tackler Will Genia which allowed them to move the ball wide and send it to Vaea Fifita who scored.
Ardie Savea almost scored for the Hurricanes in the 37th minute but he lost the ball rolling over the line in the tackle so the half ended with the Hurricanes leading 26-0.
The Hurricanes discipline – mainly at scrum time – started to cost them dearly in the match and this allowed the Rebels to mount a comeback.
In the 53rd minute Matt Philip scored the Rebels first points of the match and Quade Cooper converted.
Billy Meakes was next to score for the Rebels and again Cooper added the extras.
With just over ten minutes remaining Reece Hodge scored the Rebels final try but Cooper missed the conversion.
At that point the Rebels had scored 19 unanswered points and were just 7 points behind the Hurricanes who had started the match scoring more than a point a minute.
The Hurricanes were awarded a rare penalty so Jordie Barrett lined up the posts and put his side 10 points or two scores clear.
The Rebels had an opportunity to close the gap to 7 with a penalty but again Cooper was off target.
Next week in the thirteenth round the Hurricanes travel to Auckland for a derby clash with the Blues while the Rebels host the Reds at home in Melbourne.
Final score Hurricanes 29(26) Rebels 19(0)
Scorers
Hurricanes
Tries – N.Laumape, B.Barrett, W.Goosen, V.Fifita
Pen – J.Barrett
Con -B.Barrett 3
Drop –
Cards –
Rebels
Tries – M.Philip, B.Meakes, R.Hodge
Pen –
Con -Q.Cooper 2
Drop –
Cards –
Match Officials
Referee: Nic Berry
Assistant Ref 1:Paul Williams
Assistant Ref 2:Glen Jackson
TMO :Aaron Paterson
Teams
Hurricanes
15 Jordie Barrett, 14 Wes Goosen, 13 Matt Proctor, 12 Ngani Laumape, 11 Chase Tiatia, 10 Beauden Barrett (captain), 9 Richard Judd, 8 Reed Prinsep, 7 Ardie Savea, 6 Vaea Fifita, 5 Isaia Walker-Leawere, 4 James Blackwell, 3 Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, 2 Asafo Aumua, 1 Fraser Armstrong.
Replacements:16 Ricky Riccitelli, 17 Toby Smith, 18 Alex Fidow, 19 Kane Le’aupepe, 20 Liam Mitchell, 21 Du’Plessis Kirifi, 22 Finlay Christie, 23 James Marshall
Rebels
15 Dane Haylett-Petty (captain), 14 Jack Maddocks, 13 Tom English, 12 Reece Hodge, 11 Marika Koroibete, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Isi Naisarani, 7 Rob Leota, 6 Angus Cottrell, 5 Matt Philip, 4 Luke Jones, 3 Jermaine Ainsley, 2 Anaru Rangi, 1 Tetera Faulkner
Replacements:16 Hugh Roach, 17 Matt Gibbon, 18 Sam Talakai, 19 Ross Haylett-Petty, 20 Pone Fa’amausili, 21 Michael Ruru, 22 Billy Meakes, 23 Campbell Magnay
