The Wellington Hurricanes put a string of Super 15 opening-match losses behind them on Friday with a 22-8 victory over the Golden Lions in Johannesburg.
The New Zealand-based side, who entered the season opener on the back of four consecutive first-round defeats, led 11-8 at halftime and outscored the South African-based side by two tries to one.
The Lions had far more possession than the Hurricanes and spent long periods camped inside their opponents’ half, especially during the opening 40 minutes.
Photo: EPA
However, poor goal-kicking by normally accurate flyhalf Marnitz Boshoff, unforced errors and a lack of composure cost the home side dearly at hot and humid Ellis Park.
Renowned for a ball-in-hand approach, the Hurricanes team led by All Blacks center Conrad Smith showed they can also defend, repulsing wave after wave of attack in the first half.
And the visitors gave the Lions a lesson in clinical finishing, scoring almost every time they established an attacking foothold.
There was little to choose from between the packs with the visitors having the slightest of edges at the line-outs and the scrums.
Scrumhalf T.J. Perenara and replacement left-wing Matt Proctor crossed for Hurricanes tries, while flyhalf Beauden Barrett succeeded with four from four penalty attempts.
Right-wing Ruan Combrinck scored a try for the Lions, which gave them a brief first-half lead, and Boshoff kicked a late first-half penalty after fluffing three other shots at goal.
“We have learnt from seasons past,” Smith said as he celebrated a winning start for a team that missed the playoffs last year by one point. “Perhaps we tried to play too much in previous seasons. We were more conservative against the Lions and it worked.”
Lions skipper and No. 8 Warren Whiteley said failure to convert pressure into points cost his team dearly as they seek to improve on 12th place last season.
“This result is so disappointing for us as we had lots of scoring opportunities, but could not finish off good approach work,” Whiteley said. “We will be criticized for kicking to touch sometimes instead of going for the posts, but we believed we could use line-outs to score push-over tries.”
Barrett kicked penalties either side of the Combrinck try before the strength of fullback Jason Woodward set up Perenara to dart over.
A Boshoff penalty concluded the scoring in the first half.
Another two Barrett penalties widened Wellington’s lead to 17-8 before Proctor dived over in the corner for a stoppage-time try after being set up by a skip pass.
Meanwhile, All Blacks flyhalf Dan Carter said a leg injury he suffered during the Crusaders’ 20-10 loss to the Melbourne Rebels on Friday is “not serious.”
Carter was injured during the second half of the match in Christchurch, but stayed on the field for 10 minutes before limping to the sidelines.
He told reporters later he expected to be fit to play against the Highlanders in the Crusaders’ second-round match.
“It was just a dead leg, I am sure it was nothing serious,” Carter said. “I just thought it was a wee knock to the leg and sometimes you can run those off.”
Additional reporting by AP
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
INTER AWAIT: Superb saves by PSG ’keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma inspired the victory, as Arsenal were punished for misses, including one by Bukayo Saka Arsenal on Wednesday fell short on the big stage again as their painful UEFA Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain left Mikel Arteta to rue his club’s failure to provide him with enough attacking options. Arteta’s side were unable to reach the Champions League final for the first time in 19 years as PSG clinched a tense 2-1 win at Parc des Princes. Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg in London, the Gunners made a blistering start to the second leg, but could not convert their chances as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s superb saves inspired PSG’s 3-1 aggregate victory. Arsenal were punished for
Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ￥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ￥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,
RSS