The Wellington Hurricanes broke a 10-year Super 12 losing streak against Auckland, scoring three second-half tries on Friday to beat the Blues 22-10 at Eden Park.
The Hurricanes outscored the Blues 19-7 after the teams were tied 3-3 at half-time, posting their first win over Auckland in the competition and eliminating the 2003 champions from play-off contention.
A win without a bonus point took the third-placed Hurricanes to 34 points after 11 Super 12 rounds, one behind the Canterbury Crusaders.
The Hurricanes are not yet certain of a semifinal place, however. They face the powerful Crusaders in the last round of the regular season and could be overtaken by the Otago Highlanders and South Africa’s Bulls.
The first half on Friday had all the fury of derby contest, a play-offs decider and a match that commemorated the 100th Super 12 appearance of Hurricanes captain Tana Umaga.
”We had plenty of opportunities,” said Blues captain Xavier Rush. ”We just didn’t take our chances and turned the ball over at the wrong end of the field. We dominated possession and territory, but couldn’t put points on the board.”
The only points of the first half came from penalties — to Luke McAlister for the Blues after five minutes and Jimmy Gopperth for the Hurricanes after 17.
The Blues should have led by more, but seven crucial handling errors dampened the effectiveness of a backline that included All Blacks Doug Howlett, Joe Rokocoko, Ben Atiga and Mils Muliaiana.
The Hurricanes took charge of the match with three tries against the run of play in the first 16 minutes of the second half.
Flanker Ben Herring, who was the Hurricanes’ outstanding player, scored the first, kicking for the wing of speedster Lome Fa’atau, then taking Fa’atau’s return pass to outflank the defence.
Fa’atau scored an outstanding try in the 14th minute, beating Rokocoko on the right, then rejoining the movement outside centres Umaga and Conrad Smith to beat Howlett on the goal line. Both All Blacks wingers failed in their defensive assignments and the Hurricanes led 15-13.
They scored again, and sealed the match two minutes later when halfback Piri Weepu made a break, then fed lock Ross Kennedy off a goal-line ruck and saw Kennedy burrow through the defence.
The Blues applied massive offensive pressure for the remainder of the match, but breached the Hurricanes’ defence only once, when fullback Isa Nacewa was put into a gap after Rokocoko’s midfield break.
”It was a really tough one and it’s great to finally get a win over Auckland,” Umaga said. ”It was never easy. The aim was to run them off their legs, but we didn’t really get the ball to do that until the second half.” — Sapa-AP