The Hurricanes have made light work of Moana Pasifika, running out 36-5 winners at a rainy North Harbour Stadium in Auckland on Saturday night.
Four tries to Josh Moorby and back-to-back scores for returning stars Kini Naholo saw the Wellington side show their class, with Clark Laidlaw making use of the fixture to get some valuable minutes back into the legs of his returning stars.
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The sides traded early ventures in the match, but it was the Hurricanes who got on the board through Moorby, with the winger benefiting off some strong build up play to score in the tenth minute.
It was a similar passage that saw Moorby bag his second 11 minutes later, with a try to Du’Plessis Kirifi off the month just shy of the half hour mark seeing the visitors threatening to blow out.
Moana Pasifika struck back off the restart, however, with a brilliant long-range attack seeing Tuna Tuitama bag the hosts’ first of the night, the sides heading into break with the score 19-5.
However, any hopes of a Moana Pasifika comeback were snuffed out after a promising opening ten minutes of the second half, the side having opportunities to score their second but finding themselves unable to capitalise in the slippery conditions.
When Moorby scored his third of the night off strong support play, it proved the clincher for the hosts’ momentum.
Coming on the first time since returning from an ankle injury, Kini Naholo found himself with back-to-back scores in the 56th and 57th minutes, the lead blowing out to over 30.
Moana Pasifika struck back through Israel Leota five minutes later for their first score of the evening, but it proved to be ineffective in stopping the visitors’ momentum.
Jone Rova scored his side’s seventh try four minutes later, with Moorby scoring his fourth of the night two minutes later as the Hurricanes bench flexed their muscles, the score cracking the half-century.
Tuitama would bag his second of the night inside the final ten minutes, but it proved to be purely a consolation for Moana Pasifika as the Canes secured their ninth win of the season, reinforcing their position at the top of the Super Rugby Pacific ladder.
Moana Pasifika 17 (Tries: Tuitama 2, Leota. Cons: Havili 0/2, Garden-Bachop 1/1) def by Hurricanes 50 (Tries: Moorby 4, Naholo 2, Kirifi, Rova. Cons: Harkin 5/8)
