Super Rugby: Hurricanes thrash Crusaders
Last Updated: 16/07/16 1:33pm
The Hurricanes thrashed the Crusaders 35-10 to finish the Super Rugby regular season as New Zealand conference winners.
The five-tries-to-one victory left the Hurricanes in top spot overall after the Highlanders battled past the Chiefs later in the day.
In the high-stakes encounter the Hurricanes turned a perceived midfield weakness into a strength with Jason Woodward and Willis Halaholo scoring two of their of five tries.
Replacement flanker Callum Gibbins then put them into bonus point territory with 10 minutes remaining.
While the victory elevated the Hurricanes to the top, they could still be overtaken by South Africa's Lions, who play the Jaguares in the final game of the regular season later on Saturday.
It was a poor start to the match for both sides in Christchurch. The Crusaders lost Sam Whitelock and Andy Ellis during the warm-up, while the Hurricanes had to rush Woodward onto the field at outside centre. He replaced Ngani Laumape who was already an injury replacement for Matt Proctor.
It was Woodward who scored the opening try, running off a Beauden Barrett pass to finish off a sustained attack on the Crusaders line.
A Richie Mo'unga penalty eventually put the home side on the board and he also converted a Ryan Crotty try for the Crusaders to lead 10-7.
On the stroke of half-time, Hurricanes scrum-half TJ Perenara charged down a clearance kick from his opposite number Mitchell Drummond to regain the lead for the Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes held a slender 14-10 lead at the break and Halaholo, who has struggled for game time recently, proved the game-breaker 15 minutes into the second half. Halaholo bumped off an ineffectual tackle attempt by Crotty to score under the posts.
Barrett landed the conversion to give the Hurricanes a 10-point buffer and they followed with tries by Gibbins and Barrett. That gave them the bonus-point three-try advantage before Barrett put the icing on the cake with an intercept try with no time remaining.