Aisle be back: Hurricanes v Chiefs and the Lions tour

George Orwell had this to say in 1984 about the current Lions tour - If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a face — forever.

Nek minnit, Crusaders lose. The sort of losses the Canes have suffered this year. Running into brick walls and running out of ideas.

Anyway, Orwell's boot - aka a three-zip All Black cakewalk - has gone walkies. I suspect I'm not the only one who isn't too sad the southern men lost.

There's plenty of upside. Looks like we'll get a real test series, or at least a first test, where there'll be a ton of tension.

Looks like Warren might be finally having a ball. Or his equivalent of it. What a grim alternative we'd have had if the Lions couldn't tip over Super teams (are they as good as the All Blacks - no, they are not).

Looks like those 20,000 Lions supporters will have something to really cheer on, and annoy us with.

Looks like the hype, speculation, and mindgames are all going to go into overdrive.

In other words, we're going to get a test series hopefully that whoever wins, there will have been a real battle.

In one other final upside, I can tut tut and shake my head at those poor Saders fans reduced to whinging about the ref. We'd never stoop to that in Canes' country. 

None of which is to detract from Tuesday night's mighty win by those other southern men. Wasn't that classic Highlanders stuff, and without some of their stars. Does it change perspectives for the rest of the tour? Probably not, but the data keeps flowing in for the respective coaching teams. 

We can be sure the Maori game this weekend will be another cracker. I was there in 2005 in Hamilton when the Maori claimed a  historic victory. I remember a young Kiwi fella at game's end who looked very glum. I said to him to cheer up, and remember what 
he'd just seen, because it didn't happen that often. 

But will history repeat?

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Take the three, take the three, take the b***** three. Can we park up the Super rugby fixation of kicking for the corner and going for tries? It works in qualifying rounds, when you're chasing bonus points.

But without doing any stats grinding, it doesn't feel like it's doing us any great service when the Canes run into the clutch games. All three of which we've tanked in..

Last Friday night, we applied pressure but got few points against one of  the best quick-reset defences around. Sure we got within three points at the end with a try, but too little, too late.

Right now we seem to have been worked out by the Chiefs and Crusaders,  and we don't have pack that can bust things up.

On the positive, that was a good game. And a really good crowd at 20,000. Suspiciously loud at cheering the Chiefs, but hey we're very generous spirited.

Lifelong All Blacks supporter Kev has followed the Hurricanes since they began. Last year his faith in them was rewarded when they won the title – can they do it again?