Yep same for Canes. Glad to see Gibbins will at least get a bench spot, said last week he was unlucky to not be in the 23 but showed how good our depth was.
Big day boys big day, getting pretty excited now!! Weather's looking pretty good too which is a bonus. Black and yellow!!!!!!!
A lot have said that if the Canes were to lose tonight that the Landers are the preferred choice to lose to (as opposed to the likes of the Saders etc.) which I'd agree with but tbh there's no way I want the Canes to lose. Gonna sober this one (drinks at the stadium are just a waste of $$$) and want to fully enjoy it. Sounds like Ardie will be playing which is good. I really hope we exploit Sopoaga's shit defence by targeting his channel. Out wide is gonna be lethal for both sides. Have chucked $150 on this one (various bets) so splashing out a bit (won $300 on Wimbledon - so just 50% profits on this one). Go Canes!!!
Decent game that, Highlanders managed to make the most of their chances and defended really well throughout. But god when Savea stopped that try in the 77th minute I thought the Hurricanes may have been able to mount a comeback. That was so glorious.
Normally I would do a post game analysis. My only comment is that the Highlanders did a mixture of kicking and running while the Canes just wanted to run it. This makes it easier to come up flatter and flatter in defence. Savea has lost 3 yards of pace, seems to have put on a bit of weight, and will be remembered as the guy who dropped the try.
Words cannot describe how gutted I am. Highlanders definitely played better but fmd Barrett missing 8 points and Savea dropping that ball was so fucking costly. Add in the penalty for collapsing the scrum 5m away in the Lander's 22 in the 1st....we coughed up so many points. Our passing was fucking terrible - we didn't actually kick much (which I asked for) but our running game was spoiled by shit passing and turning the ball over. Barrett played shit all together tbh. I will say one thing though, I don't think that try Dixon "scored" was a try....never hit the ground and even he didn't think he'd got it.............that was the 7 points difference in the game. That's finals for you, our awesome season means nothing now after that performance (if you could call it that). Bitterly disappointed. Sucked Ardie got ruled out, he probably would have been a game changer with hard runs.