Julian Savea gave his old mate Cory Jane a hattrick of tries to help celebrate his 100th Investec Super Rugby match during a 40-22 bonus point try win over the Jaguares in Wellington on Saturday.
In front of 16,100 fans, Savea was at his barnstorming best to spearheaded the Hurricanes fourth straight win mixing pure power and pace after spending two weeks on the sidelines.
There were other star performers with captain and hooker Dane Coles running like a back in an action paced display that included a well taken most midfielders would be proud of.
Halfback TJ Perenara was at his sniping best around the short side, first five-eighths Beauden Barrett brought his kicking boots and nailed a series of sideline conversions, while while flanker Ardie Savea was an force in the loose despite a first half yellow card.
Not far behind was reliable lock Blade Thomson, part of a hard working forward pack that produced a pushover try against the scrum conscious Jaguares for Savea's third try.
The Hurricanes looked to have conceded a bonus try point when halfback Martin Landajo was able to duck around a maul to score in the corner to get the Jaguares back to 22-33.
However, they got it back when replacement prop Ben May put the icing on the club's 21st birthday celebrations by crashing over in injury time for the final try of the night.
Barrett had opened the scoring when taking advantage of a turnover achieved at a mid-field turnover by loose forwards Brad Shields and Victor Vito to chase through after a deft left foot grubber kick by Ardie Savea and slide over for a 10th minute try.
However, when Savea was sent to the sin bin for pulling down a lineout drive the Jaguares came back into the match. Another lineout drive from the South Americans saw big No.8 Leonardo Senatore corkscrew his way over for a 21st minute try.
No sooner was Ardie Savea back in action than centre Matias Moroni latched onto a pass from Perenara to race 70m downfield to score.
Up 12-7 the Jaguares attempted to continue their driving play but three minutes from the end of the half, under penalty advantage following a Perenara short-side break, the ball was moved for Barrett to slightly delay his pass to Thomson.
It was sufficient to put him into a gap from where he lobbed a long pass to Julian Savea who powered his way over with two men hanging onto him.
From the restart the Hurricanes secured the ball and then Perenara orchestrated another blindside break, this time to the left, and raced into open spaces. He wasn't able to pass to Julian Savea so he put a kick towards the goal-line and his wing's speed was enough for him to dive on the ball a few metres out and to slide across the damp grass to score.
In a lineout resulting from a reversed decision after an intercept try to Shields it was a superb reverse pass from Barrett to Coles that opened up the defence for the Wellington captain to show his pace and evasion skills to take the lead out to 28-15.
The Jaguares had their own misfortune just before the end when replacement centre Gonzalo Bertranou wasn't quite able to ground the ball over the line. Then from the choice of a scrum from a penalty earlier in the same play, Landajo broke to the blind and put wing Emiliano Boffelli over but it was a forward pass and no try.
It was that sort of night.
Scorers: Hurricanes 40 (Beauden Barrett, Julian Savea , Dane Coles, Ben May tries; Barrett 5 con) Jaguares 22 (Leonardo Senatore, Matias Moroni, Martin Landajo tries; Nicolas Sanchez 2 con, pen). HT: 21-12