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Hurricanes - 21 Crusaders - 24
FULLTIME
82 mins - Crusaders repel the lineout maul. Ball isn't coming out says the referee, blows up a scrum and that will be that.
Ardie Savea and Barrett blowing up here but the result is in the bag.
80 mins - Big run from Julian Savea as the siren sounds.
Penalty Canes! Wow, they're going to turn down a shot from 22m on the angle for an attacking lineout. Huge gamble.
79 mins - Crusaders turn the ball over then give it straight back. We end with a Canes scrum near halfway, one final chance here for the hosts.
76 mins - Savea knocks on at the lineout. Crusaders scrum at halfway.
74 mins - Christie crosses for a try out wide but there may have been a knock on earlier in the movement. They're checking upstairs. Yep, Barrett fumbled near the line.
Canes scrum at their own 5m.
72 mins - Penalty Crusaders. Lineout at the Canes' 22m.
68 mins - Barrett with a half break, finds his support inside. Ball spilled on the next phase, Crusaders scrum at the Canes 22m.
65 mins - Reece breaks down the left edge! they keep the ball alive, Jordan back on the other edge looks back inside, Taylor collects and crosses the line but referee says the ball was knocked on.
Ton of pressure on Garden-Bachop looking to clear but the referee says the defenders were offside. Barrett takes them to a lineout at their own 10m line.
63 mins - Crusaders defence forces a mistake by Kirifi, big chance squandered there.
61 mins - Jordan chips and chases, messy ball and the Crusaders win it back 10m from the Canes' line.
Julian Savea clears from a turnover and puts a kick into touch 10m from the Crusaders line and that will be yellow ball.
58 mins - Yet another deliberate knock down stifles the Crusaders attack. Penalty goes their way. They'll opt for the 5m lineout.
Movement breaks down via a handling error, Canes feed a scrum. Superb clearance back to halfway by Booth.
56 mins - Booth finds a gap, gasses his defender but his pass to the wing sails into touch. Canes steal the lineout, but the Crusaders quickly turn it back over and win a penalty to relieve the pressure.
54 mins - Crusaders pack a scrum 30m from the Canes' line. Penlaty goes the Canes' way and they'll move to a lineout at halfway.
46 mins - Penalty Crusaders from the restart, they'll have a chance to respond from a 5m lineout.
TRY CRUSADERS to Ethan Blackadder
Powerful run by the flanker and he reaches out to score under the attention of three tacklers. Mo'unga converts. (Crusaders 24-21)
42 mins - Barnstorming run down the flank by Julian Savea, looking like 2015 Bus. Canes win a penalty 5m out. Barrett will call for the kicking tee, 22m on the angle... sends it through. (Hurricanes 21-17)
41 mins - Garden-Bachop gets us restarted. Untidy from the Crusaders, breakdown pressure wins the Canes a scrum 22m out.
Second half underway...
HALFTIME
41 mins - 11 phases deep here for the Canes. O'Reilly carries strongly, 10m from the line.
Penalty for a deliberate knockdown to the Canes, they'll pinch a late three points and the lead here to end the half.
39 mins - One final attacking raid for the half for the Canes. They'll feed a scum at the Crusaders' 22m.
35 mins - TRY CRUSADERS to George Bridge
Mo'unga throws a dime of a skip pass for his wing to finish NRL-style in the corner. Mo'unga can't convert. (Crusaders 17-15)
30 mins - TRY HURRICANES to Josh Moorby
Another quick reply from the Hurricanes. Ardie Savea came within inches, and they shift the ball quickly for Moorby to reach out in the tackle and dot down. Barrett slots the conversion from the sideline (Hurricanes 15-12)
26 mins - TRY CRUSADERS to Quinten Strange
The decision to turn down the three points pays off for the Crusaders, who shift the ball swicftly on the back of a hard-charging run by Ennor for Strange to saunter over out wide. Conversion misses. (Crusaders 12-8)
25 mins - Canes pinged for a player off his feet. They turn down the shot again, will launch from a 5m lineout. Perfect kick from Mo'unga.
23 mins - Great defensive play by Booth, who taps intercepts a flick pass to an unmarked Jordan back to himself to save a certain try.
22 mins - Mo'unga atones with a more effective kick from an ensuing penalty. Crusaders to the Canes 22m.
20 mins - Mo'unga turns down the shot at goal but his touchfinder is an utter shocker, Canes regather and return the ball to their own 10m line.
17 mins - Some breathless back and forth action ends with Barrett claiming a bomb at halfway. Garden-Bachop returns fire, Jordan up to the task but hit hard by Barrett.
Crusaders work through the phases at halfway before winning a penalty.
12 mins - TRY HURRICANES to Du'Plessis Kirifi
Great response from the Hurricanes, as Josh Moorby attacks the defensive line and hits Kirifi with a pinpoint wide ball to score. Conversion is wide. ( Hurricanes 8-7)
9 mins - TRY CRUSADERS to Will Jordan
Havili makes a slick offload in the tackle to set Cullen Grace loose and Jordan is on hand in support to run it in from 30m out. Mo'unga converts. (Crusaders 7-3)
7 mins - Crusaders spill the ball, Barrett senses a chance to counter and kicks deep, ball breaks left and into touch at the Crusaders 22m.
5 mins - Penalty Crusaders at halfway for intentionally knocking down a pass. Bridge would have been away, lucky to escape a yellow card there. Canes steal the lineout and they look to clear. Crusaders lineout at the Canes 22m.
2nd min - Solid Hurricanes defence, and they win a turnover and a penalty advantage. They cash that in. Barrett will have a crack at the posts, 35m on the angle...over it goes. (Hurricanes 3-0)
1st min - Mo'unga gets us started. Garden-Bachop clears and Mo'unga returns to halfway.
We're underway...
4:35pm - Ideal conditions in the capital for this contest, as the sides take to a sun-soaked Sky Stadium pitch.
4:33pm - Another extra late scratching for the Hurricanes, who are dealt a big blow in the loss of All Blacks halfback TJ Perenara. Jamie Booth moves in to start.
4:25pm - A couple of late changes for both teams this afternoon. Asafo Aumua drops out of the Hurricanes side, with James O'Reilly stepping up to start at hooker.
Pumas flanker Pablo Matera has been forced to withdraw for the Crusaders, with Tom Christie moving into the run-on side in the No. 6 jersey.
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Kia ora, good afternoon and welcome to Newshub's live coverage of the Super Rugby Pacific clash between the Hurricanes and Crusaders at Wellington's Sky Stadium.
Both teams arrive at this fixture heading in opposite directions, with the Crusaders bouncing back from a shock, last-minute loss to the Chiefs three weeks ago with back-to-back victories have them lurking near the top of the Super Rugby Pacific table.
In fact, should they win tonight, they will move ahead of the Brumbies and Reds, despite a much tougher NZ conference to contend with.
Meanwhile, since their last win against the Highlanders, the Hurricanes have slumped to consecutive defeats, providing Moana Pasifika with their maiden Super Rugby success, before falling a point shot against the Chiefs last week.
While the Crusaders regularly field drastically altered line-ups to keep their deep roster engaged, the Hurricanes changes smacks of desperation, as they try to find a combination that works.
After rolling out five different inside-back tandems in their first five games, they return TJ Perenara and Jackson Garden-Bachop for a second outing together, but their experiment with Jordie Barrett in the midfield now sees fullback become the revolving door of the backline, with rookie Josh Moorby taking over from Ruben Love.
Join us at 4:30pm for kickoff.
TAB Odds: Crusaders $1.35, Hurricanes $3
Hurricanes: 1-Pouri Rakete-Stones, 2-Asafo Aumua, 3-Tyrel Lomax, 4-James Blackwell, 5-Scott Scrafton, 6-Te Kamaka Howden, 7-Du'Plessis Kirifi, 8-Ardie Savea (c), 9-TJ Perenara, 10-Jackson Garden-Bachop, 11-Wes Goosen, 12-Jordie Barrett, 13-Billy Proctor, 14-Julian Savea, 15-Josh Moorby
Reserves: 16-James O'Reilly, 17-Alex Fidow, 18-Tevita Mafileo, 19-Caleb Delany, 20-Devan Flanders, 21-Jamie Booth, 22-Bailyn Sullivan, 23-Ruben Love
Crusaders: 1-Joe Moody, 2-Codie Taylor, 3-Fletcher Newell, 4-Scott Barrett (c), 5-Quinten Strange, 6-Pablo Matera, 7-Ethan Blackadder, 8-Cullen Grace, 9-Mitch Drummond, 10-Richie Mo'unga, 11-George Bridge, 12-David Havili, 13-Braydon Ennor, 14-Sevu Reece, 15-Will Jordan
Reserves: 16-Ricky Jackson, 17-George Bower, 18-Tamaiti Williams, 19-Zach Gallagher, 20-Tom Christie, 21-Bryn Hall, 22-Fergus Burke, 23-Leicester Fainga'anuku
'Definitely beatable': Hurricanes confident of upsetting red-hot Crusaders
Despite the challenge of facing the all-conquering Crusaders, Hurricanes coach Jason Holland asserts his side can upset the reigning Super Rugby Aotearoa champions.
From their first six games of 2022, the Crusaders have won five and lost just one - a last-gasp loss to the Chiefs.
Scott Robertson's side sit third on the overall Super Rugby ladder, but first of the six NZ-based teams and will almost certainly move up the table, when the two conferences merge later this month.
First, the Crusaders travel to Wellington to face the Hurricanes on Saturday, when Holland's side hope to topple New Zealand's standard-setters and avenge their 42-32 opening-round defeat.
"They're definitely beatable," Holland said. "The thing around the Crusaders is we've felt they're beatable for 3-4 years.
"I've stood here and said 'if we play well, we can win'. It's no different this year.
"We've felt we've played really well over the last 3-4 years and we haven't won a lot of the time. That's the Crusaders, isn't it?
"We need to play well, but we need to come back to what I was talking [about] around our composure, 80 minutes, who's the pressure on, those sort of things. Everyone talks around those big moments when they come, we're nailing those to make sure we win.
"They're still a pretty special side obviously, [but] we know we can win if we play well, we've just got to play well for a long, long time."
Holland need not look far for inspiration either, pinpointing the lessons learned from last week's 17-14 Crusaders win over the Highlanders.
After taking the three-point advantage into the break, the Crusaders failed to score again in the second spell, as their defence held to deny the Highlanders a first win of the season.
And Holland asserts his side have taken enough out of their opponents' last match to end up on the right side of the ledger on Saturday.
"It's a bit of an example of what I'm talking about. The Highlanders were pretty impressive and just couldn't finish, and the Crusaders hung in.
"We just need to do our stuff as well as we can for as long as we can and keep the pressure on them. They're not invincible."
