Excitement in the wind

GO: Northland-born Hurricanes lock James Broadhurst will be looking to, again, bust through the Highlanders' defensive line at the Cake Tin tonight.PHOTO/GETTY IMAGES

HURRICANES lock James Broadhurst has become familiar with Wellington's tendency to blow a gale.

The Far North-born player said the Hurricanes squad breezed through yesterday's captain's run, literally, in preparation for tonight's Super Rugby final against the Highlanders.

"We were sort of running around in 100km/h winds so [it was] a bit hard to run at times, but it was pretty smooth and I think no different [from] any captain's run we've had all year," he said.

Even though the severe winds are forecast to abate for the clash, the Highlanders face another threat - they will have to deal with the good form of the Savea brothers, Julian and Ardie.

Asked how much of an impact the home final had had on the team, Broadhurst said the hype had been difficult to deal with at times.

"It is hard, you know. It's absolutely everywhere at the moment. I look outside my house and just about every car has got a Hurricanes flag on it.

"When you start hearing about a stadium being sold out in a minute, it gets you thinking. It's awesome, the things we've been hearing and seeing around town."

While he insisted his prematch build-up wouldn't be altered too much, Broadhurst admitted sleeping last night posed a challenge.

"[I'll] mentally switch off for at least the next 15 hours or so, but yeah I just can't wait. It's going to be extremely hard to sleep tonight. I'll try to watch a movie or something. [I] try to keep everything the same, like tonight [Friday] I'll have a pasta and try not to think about the game too much until just before bedtime [when] I'll have a bit of a read over my notes."

Planning on doing as little as possible today to keep his nerves in check, Broadhurst will join his Hurricanes teammates around 2pm when they will head to the stadium as a pack to tackle the last of their wondrous season's preparations.

If tonight's match is anything like last weekend's, it'll be a noisy affair. "I think just running out initially I was thinking to myself 'S***, there's a lot of people here'," Broadhurst said of the Hurricanes' home semifinal last weekend against the Brumbies.

"We do enough work during the week to get that stuff right so the crowd shouldn't worry us too much - in fact, it should help us."