RETRO NIGHT - 2006
The night the Hurricanes season ended under a cloud
Crusaders 19 Hurricanes 12
Wellington-based radio host Jason Pine summed up the 2006 Super Rugby final the best.
“It was like watching a stage show with the curtain down,” Pine said.
What promised to be one of the most gripping finals in Super Rugby history, between the Crusaders and Hurricanes, ended up being remembered as the one no-one ever really saw.
That was after a thick blanket of fog rolled into Christchurch’s AMI Stadium about an hour before the match started.
What was a perfect night for rugby turned into conditions that suited no-one, not the players, the coaches, the officials and certainly not the spectators who were left to wonder exactly what was happening for the vast majority of the match.
“It was a shocker,” 2006 Hurricanes coach Colin Cooper said. “We couldn't sit up in the coaches box so we came down on the field but we could only see halfway across the field.”
That left everyone frustrated and the Hurricanes forever wondering what might have been had the final been played without the fog.
“It's a haunting sort of memory,” Cooper added when talking about the match years later. “We had an opportunity to win the game. We didn't have the depth of the Crusaders in the forwards but we had a backline that could compete and we just really needed quick ball and we got dominated in the forwards so we weren't able to spark our backs.”
The final, and the way it played out, overshadowed what was ultimately a pretty successful season as they made the competition decider for the first time in the club’s history.
Starting with a resounding 37-19 win over the Blues in their opening match, the Hurricanes went on to be victorious in 10 of their 13 games.
That included wining their last three round robin matches to lock up second spot on the table and guarantee them a home semifinal against the Waratahs – the team they beat in their last match.
Facing up to the Australian side for a second week, the Hurricanes edged the semifinal 16-14.
The Hurricanes 2006 final squad:
15 Isaia Toeava
14 Lome Fa’atau
13 Ma’a Nonu
12 Tana Umaga
11 Sahhon Paku
10 David Holwell
9 Piri Weepu
8 Rodney So’oialo
7 Chris Masoe
6 Jerry Collins
5 Jason Eaton
4 Paul Tito
3 Neemia Tialata
2 Andrew Hore
1 John Schwalger
Reserves
16 Luke Mahoney
17 Joe McDonnell
18 Luke Andrews
19 Thomas Waldrom
20 Brendan Haami
21 Jimmy Gopperth
22 Tamati Ellison