The Hurricanes made hard work of a 22-16 Super Rugby victory over the Western Force in Wellington.
The victory, courtesy of tries to Jeffrey Toomaga-Allen, Brad Shields and Tusi Pisi and seven points from Beauden Barrett's boot moved the Hurricanes back into playoffs contention on 27 points.
The Force have won just two games, including a 16-14 win over the seven times champions Canterbury Crusaders last week, but have proved hard to put away with their largest defeat by just 12 points and it transpired again on Friday.
Former Hurricanes players Alby Mathewson and Jayden Hayward came back to haunt their old team-mates, scoring all of the Force's points.
The Hurricanes are third in the New Zealand conference.
