Aisle be back: Hurricanes v Highlanders

Remember the vibe about six rounds ago? Hand over the trophy, they said, it’s the Canes for sure. That seems a long time ago.

Now the vibe is hand over the trophy to the Saders, its there’s for sure.

So, let’s start by repeating that it definitely weren’t so a while back and it definitelyain’t so yet.

Not to walk away too quickly from the train smash on Friday night. It was horrible, and kind of what you feared in the wet down there.

It doesn’t answer the obvious puzzles. Such as why the Canes did not prepare – or if they did – fail to execute a game plan for the conditions.

And then, why would we struggle any more than any other New Zealand team in the wet? Oh, hold on, it’s because the weather is so much better these days in Wellington, the team is as well acquainted with the muck as the Wallabies at Athletic Park.

You could always blame Beauden Barrett and start the Mo’unga bandwagon up.

Or the ref (just don’t go there, it’s pathetic, and if you play well, the ref seems to like you anyway).

So what do you think as a fan will happen next. Because the shit just hit you.

My two cents worth is to not change much. Keep charging hard, even anything even more so, to score points. Bonus points, and points points. And wins of course.

Essentially with that spare game in hand, we’re in a race with the Crusaders to not drop any games and to max out the resulting log points.

Now we’re heading into derby territory, barring one against the Brumbies, then both teams face similar run-ins and the Chiefs and Highlanders will be desperate opponents.

It’s hardly panic time. Retake the top spot and welcome the Crusaders to a dry Caketin, with gale force contra-rotating winds and see how the visitors like them apples.

The good news is that the Highlanders have a roof, and so it should be a cracker this weekend, especially as they roll back in with some big names. Time to blow away the damp and get those speed merchants firing again.

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If you’ve seen the team list on the Canes site, you’ll notice every player has a phonetic guide, where needed, to how to say their name.

It’s no doubt linked to NZR’s Say My Name concept, and it’s nice to see. Although perhaps someone forgot to told Steve Hansen before he picked TTT.

If you’ve ever had your name mangled (I am not McCartney, or MacArthur – it’s Mick-Ar-Thee) you’ll know how disrespectful it is.

Not looking at you, of course, South African and Aussie commentators.

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They’re going to immortalise John Eales in statue form. Provided they don’t use the guy who did the Ronaldo bust, this should go very well.

The news brings back a lot of memories and reaffirms why, if you can, you need to get out to games to watch them. When the remarkable happens, it burns into your memory, in a way that a big screen TV never can.

The game I’m remembering is the return Bledisloe at the Cake Tin in 2000 where the hand of Dowd gave the Aussies a last-minute penalty. With no recognised kicker left on the field, it fell to Eales to hoof the Boys Own’ winner.

There was so much more to that. The watch hand of Kaplan who played maybe eight minutes of extra time. The terrific match that had preceded this ending, lit up by a stunning All Black backline move. And all coming threeweeks after the match from heaven in Sydney that left the Bledisloe there for the recapturing by the All Blacks after a long drought.

And, young readers, it all played out as an afternoon test match. Someone sure made a mistake with the scheduling.

Somewhere I’ve got an old videotape of the two famous 2000 Bledisloe tests. One day I may watch them again, but then again, maybe I don’t need to.

Kevin is a lifetime Hurricanes fan. He and his partner are on a two-year Volunteer Service Abroad posting to Vanuatu's Espiritu Santo island. He's working on a project to build a South Pacific World War 2 museum on the site of an enormous Allied base on the island. Check it out at www.southpacificwwiimuseum.com