Aisle Be Back: Hurricanes v Chiefs (semi-final)

Any blog is improved by paraphrasing from Kung Fu Panda. In this case, there is no good or bad weather. There is just weather.

And weather there was on Saturday, although shame on you if you chickened out and stayed at home. Admittedly the student who got off at my bus-stop on Lambton Quay managed five metres before his plastic poncho was shredded by the wind. His mate had the good sense to wear a full-body banana bodysuit.

Inside the stadium, aka the waterfront particle accelerator, it was as usual hard to work out exactly where the weather was coming from. It actually wasn’t too bad at times, but the editor of Club Rugby assures me that he walked on the ground pre-match, found it hard to stand up at times, and noted the turf was actually pretty sodden.

So it’s time to marvel at how good modern rugby players are in playing high-tempo rugby in all conditions. Justin Marshall curiously wrote midweek that the weather was the worst he’d seen in Wellington – curious, because he was halfback in 1996 during what remains the gold standard for test match wet weather rugby, the 43-6 demolition of the Wallabies at Athletic Park.

The Athletic Park micro-climate (I was there) from memory actually cleared for a large part of the match, but the damage done by the preceding storm meant that by fulltime the players were covered in mud – just think that Dompost photo from club rugby at Maidstone Park. The turf of course is not a patch on what we have today.

Now that was 20 years ago, but it would be a stretch to say that great ‘96 team would pall in skill levels compared to a modern side.

So let’s park up an explanation based on skill alone. What I would link it to is the sheer intent to play at speed and while respecting the conditions, to not let them stymie what you do. It’s what the All Blacks showed in 1996, it’s what the Canes showed on Saturday and what other New Zealand sides also generally display.

The gulf in intent was huge, and the Sharks were thus on the end of a scarcely-believable shutout.

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It’s so hard to look at a game like the semi-final and work out where your head is making sense, and where your heart is taking over and you stray into wishful thinking. So here it is all mixed up together.

Dane Coles won’t make a start. His understudy won’t be fazed by throwing against the All Blacks top lock, and our lineout won’t get the wobbles.

The Chiefs will pick a full set of props and won’t need to whip out their gold card in the last 10 minutes but the scars of last time remain.

There’s a little bit of the flat track bully about the Chiefs and their backline wizardry – but some exploitable faultlines – as the Canes showed in the regular season loss when Beaudy was cutting them up in the second half.

Ardie is due a really big one as opposed to his usual top-draw consistency. He’s up against that Sam Cane bloke. Who wins that could be the difference.

All that flying has to count for something, and it will.

And something really has changed in the Canes. In seasons past, they’d have leaked a couple of soft late tries on Saturday night.  But that performance was relentless, and that’s the third week running. If they keep that up, and they will need to, then they can run down the Chiefs.

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I can smile at finals time, along with any other season pass holder, because the We’ve Got Your Back campaign means my tickets are free.

Obviously a great gesture and it would have looked even grander six months ago when you’d have to be an incurable romantic to think the Canes would again have home finals advantage.

I could hazard a guess at the cost in ticket revenue – and possibly the accountant was cheering on the Lions two weekends ago - but the goodwill factor is well worth it.

Just remember that if you’re thinking of staying at home again with your mate, Mr Heat Pump, that this is sudden death. There may not be a week after, so get out there!

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.