During last year’s Super Rugby Pacific season, a lack of firepower was never the problem for the Hurricanes.

If players with as much credibility among their peers in the sport – such as Jordie Barrett, Dane Coles and Ardie Savea – are wearing your kit, like all three were a season ago for the Wellington-based side, then chances are, you’re probably going to be able to blow past some teams. 

The evidence is in the 64 tries the Hurricanes scored during the 2022 regular season, which tied for the highest in the competition.

Where disappointment came for the ‘Canes, most notably in the form of a fifth-place finish and quick elimination from the playoff quarterfinals at the hands of the Brumbies, was when inconsistency struck the ranks. 

Dropped points here, missed opportunities there, and a squad stacked with internationally capped, world-beating talent had a bit of a deflating go at it in 2022.

Consider the team’s electric start to 2023 to be making up for lost time.

The Hurricanes enter Round 7 this weekend at 5-1 overall on 23 points (and a league-high 35 tries and 243 points scored). They’re second in the Super Rugby table and looking to continue their good form by getting a positive result in a derby matchup with fellow New Zealand club, the Highlanders. 

Kickoff is set for Saturday at 3:05 a.m. Eastern, and the match will be streamed live on FloRugby.

Coach Jason Holland, who has been on the Hurricanes’ coaching staff since 2015 and was appointed the leader on the touchline in late 2019, is happy with what he’s seeing out of his side, and the squad seems to have staked a claim early as one of Super Rugby’s teams to beat. 

🔥 Hot hands from @Hurricanesrugby for the opener! #SuperRugbyPacific pic.twitter.com/T14fx7BAPh

— Super Rugby Pacific (@SuperRugby) March 25, 2023

However, he’s also trying to keep things in perspective – after all, he remembers the disappointment of past years and the hurt it brought.

“I’m happy because I’m seeing growth in our game, and I’m seeing the boys happy to turn up to work and loving their work and working hard,” Holland said in a press conference this week. “Where we are in the table is the outcome of all the little things that are happening around here. 

“We’re coming on, we’re having some good fun together and the outcomes are coming. Not getting carried away at all, but we got to keep doing the right thing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.”

In 2022, the Hurricanes went 8-6 in the regular season, with four of those defeats decided by a try or less. 

Perhaps the most notable one of those losses was when then-debutant Moana Pasifika obtained its first win in Super Rugby at the expense of the Hurricanes, a 24-19 triumph the club that calls the Pacific Islands home won with a last-gasp try in added time. 

So far in 2023, the Hurricanes are finding themselves on the winning side of those types of games more often than not.

Minus a Round 3 slip-up to one of last year’s finalists, the Blues, the ‘Canes, in each of their matches won on the year, have scored at least 34 points and have a season-high of 59, which they obtained against the same Moana Pasifika side that shocked them last season. This time, it was Hurricanes with a dominant shutout victory in Round 5.

In front of a hostile away section during the always-rowdy Super Round against the Melbourne Rebels at their home ground of AAMI Park, the Hurricanes weathered the storm with a 39-33 win. 

Last weekend, when the Western Force threatened to take the Hurricanes to the limit after chewing away at a sizable lead, they remained collected and pulled out the points in a wild 45-42 shootout to keep pace as the closest competitor to the league-leading Chiefs.

With the Blues being the only New Zealand-based opponent they’ve faced so far, the Hurricanes – knowing a pair of matches against national rivals in the Highlanders and the Chiefs await in the next two rounds – are out to prove they deserve to be classified as one of the elite squads in the country, an important distinction to have, as no non-NZ team has won a Super Rugby title (minus the pandemic-enacted regional competitions) since 2014.

“I think those New Zealand teams are definitely the top-performing teams going around at the moment,” Hurricanes fly-half Aidan Morgan said to the media this week. “So, we’ll definitely find out where we sit at the end of these rounds.

“I think every week, we’re striving to put that perfect game together. We’ve had periods where we thought we played really well and periods where we lapsed in recent weeks. So, I think we’re all always just trying to build and nail our systems and nail our individual roles each week and keep building toward the end of the season.”

And, on the topic of individual roles, Morgan – a 21-year-old who has made appearances for the New Zealand under-20 national team – has a big one under his responsibility against the Highlanders.

The ‘Canes confirmed that Morgan would be making his return to the pitch for the first time since suffering a concussion in Round 4 against the New South Wales Waratahs, and he’ll get the start in the No. 10 role, after All Black Brett Cameron was forced off with a leg injury against the Force. 

Morgan downplayed any comparisons to Barrett, who started to play in the same role at about the same age for the Hurricanes several seasons ago, but it’s a show of high marks, praise and trust from Holland in the abilities of the Auckland native in being put in a position in which others before him have thrived.

In the midseason grind of a club rugby campaign, injuries and knocks can pile up and derail a team’s dreams. But for those who find diamonds that emerge in their place and show their talent runs deep, they’ll be in prime position to succeed down the line.

For the Hurricanes, as they chase their first Super Rugby championship since 2016 and second crown in history, they’re starting to wonder if they’re meant for this moment. 

“There’s competitions amongst all positions in our team, and that’s the beauty of it,” Morgan said. “We’re all striving to earn a spot each week, and that competition brings the best out of everyone, I think. … Especially with this competition particularly, there’s always going to be injuries, so you just sort of take it in stride.”