Hurricanes fit defensive sweet spot: coach

Hurricanes boss Chris Boyd says his side will “throw the kitchen sink” at the Lions in the Super Rugby final.

The Wellington-based side ground out a 25-9 home semi-final win against the Chiefs on Saturday, with Beauden Barrett producing two moments of brilliance to score one try and create another.

The Hurricanes will face the Lions after the Johannesbury side’s 42-30 victory over reigning champions the Highlanders.

Boyd said last year’s grand final defeat to the Dunedin-based Highlanders would serve as motivation to go one better in 2016.

“We’ve got a bit of a roll, a bit of momentum now, which is nice,” he said after the match.

“Obviously the pain from last year’s final is still with us but we’ll be throwing the kitchen sink at it.”

Boyd lauded his defence, who have kept the Stormers last week and Chiefs this week tryless over 80 minutes.

His side had finally learned to combine their oft-cited attacking flair with defensive steel.

“Instead of being a team renowned for attack and a bit flaky on defence, as we’ve been historically, we’re going to try to make a commitment to be as good without the ball as with the ball,” Boyd said.

Opposing Chiefs coach Dave Rennie admitted his side couldn’t cope with the Hurricanes’ line speed and offensive pressure.

His side hadn’t done enough with periods of sustained first-half dominance to get over the line.

“We had enough ball, enough opportunities, but we made too many errors,” Rennie said.

“We’ve got a pretty young team who would’ve learned a lot this year.

“We’ll take a lot of those learnings into next season.”

Rennie said the Lions would have to be clinical away from home to have any chance against the Hurricanes next week.

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