Hurricanes stand in captain TJ Perenara has praised his team-mates for the way they defended their line in the 25-9 Super Rugby Semi-final victory over the Chiefs in Wellington.
The Hurricanes lost regular team captain Dane Coles before the match due to a rib injury he sustained in last week’s quarter final victory over the Sharks.
The Hurricanes three tries to none victory earns them a second consecutive Super Rugby final at home in Wellington.
“The boys were really pumped, defending for a big part of that game, especially for about 15 minutes in that first half,” Perenara told Sky after the match.
“That set the standard for us. They’re a very good Chiefs team and they threw a lot at us, and for our boys to be able to step up and make some tackles was big for us.”
The Chiefs had to fly in from South Africa for the match after they beat the Stormers 21-60 in Cape Town last Saturday and captain Cruden said they just didn’t “front” enough.
“I think we came down here confident after last week’s performance,” Chiefs captain Cruden said.
“Unfortunately, we just didn’t front in enough areas.”
“We’ve got to give credit to the Hurricanes, they defended really well, applied a lot of pressure and at crucial moments they were just a bit sharper than we were.”
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