Five tries to the Hurricanes have earned them a bonus point in their 42-20 Super Rugby victory over the Kings in Wellington.
Vaea Fifita breaks the tackle by Ntando Kebe. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The Hurricanes execution at pace in the opening quarter had indicated another rout was on the cards for the Kings, who had conceded 158 points in their first three games this season.
The home side scored tries to Ngani Laumape, Blade Thomson and Ardie Savea to establish a 19-3 lead in the first 25 minutes, with Savea's efforts promoting his All Black call-up chances later in the year.
The match was mostly played in the Kings' half of the field for the first 40 minutes, but somehow the visitors were able to turn two raids into Hurricane's territory into tries.
Steven Sykes dotted down in his 100th Super Rugby game and Louis Fouche scored on the stroke of half-time after a Hurricanes handling error opened the door for the Kings to counter attack.
Ahead 19-17 at the break, the Hurricanes, playing into a stiff southerly wind in the second half, botched several try scoring opportunities.
Scrumhalf TJ Perenara chose to take contact rather than look for players outside him, prop Chris Eve then dropped the ball short of the line, while Laumape also failed to ground the ball against the goalpost padding.
But with seven minutes left in the game, replacement back Vince Aso finished off a break from prop Loni Uhila and brilliant pass from rangy loose forward Vaea Fifita.
The Kings had tightened their defence in the second half, but nothing was going to stop the Hurricanes' final try after a long line out throw bounced into the hands of Beauden Barrett.
Beauden Barrett runs in the Hurricanes' 5th try. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The first-five hit warp factor nine as he raced under the posts to score from half-way to blow the score out.
It was the second successive week the Hurricanes had played a lot of rugby without putting the game away, having only pulled away from the Western Force in the final 20 minutes last week in Palmerston North.
Their poor decision making will cause coach Chris Boyd some consternation as they head into their bye week and captain Dane Coles said after the match his players had been guilty of trying to do too much.
- Reuters / RNZ
