Flyhalf Beauden Barrett became the leading scorer for the Hurricanes in Super Rugby yesterday, kicking three conversions and three penalties in a 35-19 win over the Queensland Reds, to return the Wellington-based team to the top of the championship table.
When Barrett kicked a penalty for the opening points of the match in the second minute, he passed David Holwell’s record of 676 points for the Hurricanes, whose competition lead was briefly usurped by the Chiefs during the weekend’s 11th round.
The Hurricanes’ unbeaten start to the season ended last weekend at seven games when they were beaten by defending champions the New South Wales Waratahs.
They quickly put that loss behind them with a bonus-point win over the 13th-placed Reds that lifted them a point clear of the Chiefs in first place.
The Hurricanes were the only team to win away from home in seven matches in the 11th round.
The Chiefs had gone top of the table with a bonus-point win over the Western Force in the opening match of the round in Hamilton on Friday. The ACT Brumbies beat the Highlanders 31-18 later that night to stay atop the Australian conference ahead of next weekend’s clash with the Waratahs that is likely to decide the conference winner.
The Cape Town-based Stormers beat the Pretoria-based Bulls 15-13 on Saturday to move one point ahead of the Bulls atop the South African conference.
In other matches, the Christchurch-based Crusaders avoided a third-straight home loss, beating the Auckland-based Blues 29-15 and the Waratahs edged the Melbourne Rebels 18-16 for their fourth-straight win over an Australian conference rival.
The Lions beat the Bloemfontein-based Cheetahs 34-29 in Johannesburg.
The Hurricanes trailed 12-6 in the 19th minute yesterday after an early try-scoring double by Reds center Samu Kerevi, but they replied with two tries of their own to take a 23-12 lead into halftime.
Flanker Liam Gill closed the gap to 23-19 with a try shortly after the restart, before scrumhalf T.J. Perenara completed a double and winger Julian Savea scored a try that clinched the win and a fourth-try bonus point.
“They were playing really well early on,” Hurricanes captain Conrad Smith said. “We were putting ourselves under pressure a bit.”
“We gave away too many penalties and didn’t exit too well from a couple of kickoffs,” he added. “We felt if we played our way, we could get ourselves back in the game and thankfully, that’s the way it worked out.”
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