Beaten Canes remain upbeat

To paraphrase good old Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Hurricanes have nothing to fear but themselves as they head into the final round of Super Rugby Pacific’s regular season at short odds to be handed a tough road quarterfinal.

That was the view of head coach Jason Holland in the wake of Saturday night’s 36-25 defeat to the Blues at Eden Park – their fifth of the season, and second to the Auks in ‘23 – that left the men from the capital stranded on 37 points, and fifth on the standings. They are four back of the fourth-placed Brumbies and five behind the Blues in third, and would need things to go dramatically their way in this weekend’s final round to catch either.

The Brumbies host the Melbourne Rebels in their regular season finale, while the Blues will meet the Highlanders in Aaron Smith’s potential farewell back at Eden Park. The Canes wrap up at Sky Stadium on Saturday night against the second-placed Crusaders who could theoretically be hauled in by the Blues should results fall a certain way.

The Hurricanes showed plenty of grit and character to fight back from 19-3 down at Eden Park at the half-hour mark to remain in the hunt through the second half until Mark Telea’s fourth try put the game to bed for the hosts. They also lost both their starting wings to injury – Julia Savea to a pec/ biceps issue after just a couple of minutes, and his replacement, Salesi Rayasi, to some ‘‘friendly fire’’ in the 66th minute. Halfback Cam Roigard finished the match on the wing.

The Canes were outscored six tries to four, and were the victims of a masterclass performance from Blues right wing Telea who dotted down four times in a remarkable display of elusiveness, skill, strength and dexterity. Later, Holland was beating an upbeat drum about prospects moving forward, despite this being his team’s fourth defeat in the least six.

Asked if he saw enough to come back and win in a fortnight, if that’s how the quarterfinals shook out, Holland said: ‘‘Nothing to do with the Blues, but I know we’ve got enough to compete, whether it’s here or Hamilton or Christchurch or Canberra ... wherever it may be.

‘‘It’s not really about opposition for us at the moment, it’s about us massively. But 100% we’ve got enough to win knockout games.’’

Holland credited a gamechanging turn from Telea with swinging things the Blues’ way, but felt the fixes for the Hurricanes, who have only had one victory against Kiwi opposition all year, were achievable as they eyed a finals step up.

‘‘We’ve just got to do things better for longer,’’ he said. ‘‘I know it was Tana [Umaga’s] 50th birthday. We gave a hell of a lot of gifts tonight. That first half ... to give them field position, give them 5m lineouts, errors. We were scrambling, and to be 19-10 at halftime, I thought, ‘geez, how has this happened, with the amount of opportunities we gave them?’

‘‘But in the second half the boys came out with a different mindset, and there was a lot more intent. We’d do something really well, score points, and then make an error and give the Blues an opportunity to score straight away. That’s the biggest thing in our game: we have to nail those pressure moments and not give easy points in knockout footy.’’

Holland confirmed there would be no easing off against the Crusaders, despite their long odds at improving their position, and their safety in fifth spot.

Holland said there were no injury issues that contributed to Jordie Barrett’s off-night with the boot (he missed two penalties and two conversions) and defended hooker Asafo Aumua’s part in five costly lineout misses on their own throw.

‘‘There were a couple of notstraights, and a couple we weren’t overly smart with how we went about it. He’s throwing really well at the moment. There will be a couple he’ll be disappointed with, but I reckon he’s playing some pretty good footy.’’ The Canes may have to dig deep in their wing stock this week if Savea and Rayasi are as bad as feared.