Late Hurricanes blow out Force
Two late tries from James Broadhurst and Cory Jane helped Wellington Hurricanes secure a narrow 34-28 win over the Western Force.
Last Updated: 27/05/11 12:47pm
Two late tries from James Broadhurst and Cory Jane helped Wellington Hurricanes secure a narrow 34-28 win over the Western Force in Super Rugby on Friday.
Lock Broadhurst touched down on 71 minutes and All Blacks full-back Jane scored a bonus-point try five minutes from full-time to see the Hurricanes earn their fourth victory from 13 matches this season.
But the result was hard on the Force, who led for much of the game and were 28-20 in front with 15 minutes remaining.
Former Wallabies fly-half Cameron Shepherd scored a try among an 18-point haul on his return from injury, while for the Hurricanes centre Ma'a Nonu scored two tries - his first in a season which has also been troubled by fitness problems - and rebuilt his All Blacks midfield pairing with Conrad Smith.
Both sides had already dropped out of play-off contention and the Force started the better, led by the outstanding performances of Shepherd, scrum-half Mark Swanepoel and fly-half Janes Stannard.
The visitors built an 18-10 lead by half-time with tries from centre Rory Sidey and Shepherd. Though the Hurricanes cut into their deficit with Nonu's second score nine minutes into the second half, a try to back-rower Ben McCalman gave put the visitors a 25-17 in front midway through the second half.
But the Hurricanes were finally able to assert in the late stages of the second half when former All Blacks fly-half Aaron Cruden attacked the line, then found gaps for supporting players.
Broadhurst and Jane turned the match with their late tries, while Cruden scored 14 points from four conversions and two penalties.
Welcomed win
Hurricanes stand-in captain Victor Vito welcomed the win following the Wellington side's narrow or last-minute losses in several matches this season.
He said: "This match was an accumulation of all the stuff in the past and finally we've ended up on the right side of the ledger.
"We gave them too many opportunities and they scored off them as well so we had to go away and talk about it at halftime and come back again."
Force captain Nathan Sharpe was disappointed to lose after his side had led for much of the match.
He said: "It was very disappointing. I'd like to say Mark Swanepoel and James Stannard were outstanding tonight and the boys came out and did a fantastic job.
"For 77 minutes we did really well but in the last three we let them in. Things went well for us tonight but when they got down the other end of the field they scored points and that's the story of the match."
