The Hurricanes have claimed a 38 – 22 win against the Sharks on Opening Night at Sky Stadium.
It was a nerve-wracking start with the Sharks getting out to an early lead. Lukhanyo Am made an intercept inside his team’s own 22 metre mark and ran most of the field, before offloading to Madosh Tambwe in the last few metres.
But that lead wasn’t to last long, with Wes Goosen crossing the line in the right-hand corner merely eight-minutes later. His work was converted by an on-form Jordie Barrett to take the score to 10 – 7.
The action kept coming, with another try and penalty kick to the Sharks before halftime and a try to Ngani Laumape following a massive run from the middle of the field.
It meant the score was all tied up 17 – 17 at the whistle.
Only three minutes into the second half, Ben Lam showed his pace and impressive footwork, with a breakaway try.
He backed it up with another successful run only seven minutes later, stealing a high-ball from the Sharks and once again utilising his pace to slide over the line in the left corner, despite being ankle-tapped.
Head coach, Jason Holland told media Lam played a huge part in the win.
“A huge focus for Ben has been getting nice and physical and dominant. I think we’ve really seen that in the last few weeks.”
The Hurricanes had one more try up their sleeve, coming from Dane Coles in the 64th minute. It was Coles first match of 2020, but the experienced hooker was able to burst his way through a powerful maul to take his team to a 38 – 17 lead.
Holland says it’s great to have the co-captain back.
“we’re not too bad off actually. We have few boys who are long-term injured, but Colsey’s back into it and we’ll see how he fares up after tonight. We should, however, have a pretty good group coming back in over the next few weeks.”
The Sharks came back with one final unconverted try before the fulltime whistle which came around the 70-minute mark.
The Hurricanes have now won two games in a row as they go into a bye week, before heading to play the Sunwolves in Napier on February 29.