Hurricanes blowing hot
January 29 2010
The Hurricanes got their 2010 pre-season program off to a fine start on Friday, beating the Brumbies 26-5 in Porirura on Friday.
The men in yellow outscored their guests by four tries to one, through forwards Jason eaton and Dane Coles in the first half and wing Hosea Gear and centre Charlie Ngatai in the second.
Aaron Cruden impressed at fly-half in the second half as Willie Ripia had done in the first, and the pack was excellent at absorbing pressure in the first half.
Neither side appeared to be hit by injury.
Brumbies Head Coach Andy Friend said despite the scoreline there were some promising signs for his side.
"I thought there was some really good stuff from our game structure and our set piece was good," he said.
"Poor execution probably let us down a bit but that happens in a first trial. Defensively we got a wake-up call and we were exposed a bit out wide and physicality-wise we need to be tougher but we can address those things.
"We definitely need to have these things right by the Force game [in a fortnight] which I know we will.
"You never like losing games of footy but when you're learning things like we did and not getting any injuries then it's not such a bad day."
Hurricanes squad: Andre Taylor, David Smith, Alapati Leiua, Johnny Leota, Hosea Gear, Willie Ripia, Piri Weepu (c), Nick Crosswell, Karl Lowe, Victor Vito, James Broadhurst, Michael Paterson, John Schwalger, Ged Robinson, Jacob Ellison, Dane Coles, Michael Bent, Daniel Ramsay, Scott Waldrom, Tyson Keats, Chris Eaton, Cory Jane, Charlie Ngatai, Neemia Tialata, Ma'a Nonu, Jason Eaton, Api Naiktatini, Aaron Cruden, Tamati Ellison.
Brumbies squad: Matt Toomua, Alfi Mafi, Stirling Mortlock, Tyrone Smith, Francis Fainifo, Christian Lealifano, Josh Valentine, Stephen Hoiles (c), Henry Vanderglas, Mitchell Chapman, Ben Hand, Justin Harrison, Guy Sheperdson, Huia Edmonds, Salesi Maafu, Anthony Hegarty, John Ulugia, Sitaleki Timani, Michael Hooper, Colby Faingaa, Patrick Phibbs, Afusipa Taumoepeau, Andrew Smith, Jesse Mogg.