Aisle Be Back: Hurricanes v Sharks (quarterfinal)

What have we won? Nothing!

But that was one heck of a two days of nothing, and I can’t recall anything remotely like that particular ridiculous trifecta dropping into place.

Now of course it’s time to reboot. The Sharks are coming, and they thumped us last time we played them.  Expect an arm wrestle, and a suffocating of our attack.

So patience will count for everything.

On the very bright side, patience was perhaps the thing most evident in the magnificent win in Christchurch that set up the run. Last season there were no quarterfinals for us and we sat out a week. I think it’s better this way, especially with the team firing so well.

Can we just have one more thing? It’s time for the Bus to finally turn up. 

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The Canes and the Lions both took audacious strategies into the final matches. Well, the attack at all costs mindset sure paid off for us.

The Lions were the flipside, an audacious leap for safety with the resting of the first XV, banking on the second string to do enough to at least get a bonus point against the Jaguares.

I thought at the time that was er, brave. Because it never makes sense to take a gamble on something you can control. That’s handing the initiative over to the opposition, and that generally means you’re thinking defensively – which is no way to mount a title challenge.

Maybe Johan Ackermann will have the last laugh. But right now he’s probably got a squad that’s suddenly not riding the wave, but wondering where it went.

Even worse, they end up hosting what will be a Crusaders side seething over their 35-10 humiliation. I’m glad we didn’t end up with that as an immediate rematch.

Not that I’m going all soft on our Southern friends. Not after their local paper attributed some of the loss to both a vomiting bug and the Canes “illegal line-speed”. 

Well I don’t think being fast is an offence, so presumably they meant offside not being policed.
That’s the media chatter though; it’s hard to imagine the team itself doing anything other than looking at their own failings. 

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Anyone else out there got an irrational worry that we’ve had all our rugby good karma delivered last weekend and now there’s going to be payback.

I’m here to reassure you that this is not going to happen. We’re going to march to the title over the next three weekends and finally become Super Rugby champions. This is the only way to treat the next 7 days, then the next 7, then the next 7.

Because you know that regardless, the world is waiting for your team, the Hurricanes, to implode. They’re the Canes, after all, the only NZ team never to win the title, the perennial wannabees who choked last year with all the home advantage.

So enjoy every day of success from here until the end, because you’ve heard it all before. And you don’t care.  Make those Saders fans squirm, remind those Chiefs about their golden oldies scrummaging, and tell the Highlanders they won’t even get to our House this time.

We’re now into sudden death trash talking. I’ve already got a mate threatening to deliver dog dos to my letterbox. I may be peaking too soon.

Kev has followed the Hurricanes since they began. He has a season pass. Every year he predicts the Canes will win Super Rugby. He refuses to be called a long-suffering fan.