Canes fail to ' feed the backs'

Aren't the Hurricanes wonderful? Just when you think that at long last they may be about to stamp their mark on Super rugby they play like a bunch of tossers and lose their opening game of 2011 to an equally inept Highlanders.
Well, almost equally inept. At least the Highlanders did show some steel up front, something you'd expect from a side coached by Jamie Joseph, who could never be accused of taking a backward step in his playing days.
In fact, you'd have to think that two of the "forgotten" All Blacks, prop Jamie Mackintosh and loosie Adam Thomson, did enough for the southerners to lay early claims for World Cup consideration.
Mackintosh has always been a handful around the paddock but question marks have been raised over his scrummaging.
He looked solid there last weekend and the weeks ahead will tell us whether that was because the Hurricanes front row was so woeful or Mackintosh has come of age in that department.
I've always been a fan of Thomson. He's your typical southern man: rugged, uncompromising and probably a Speight's drinker. Playing the latte set from the capital was always likely to bring out the best in him, and that it did. He covered more territory than the early settlers and was especially lethal with his close quarter defence.
And, of course, the Highlanders also had Jimmy Cowan, actor extraordinaire. His beaming smile after making a late tackle by an out-of-sorts Ma'a Nonu look a lot worse than it actually was enraged the Hurricanes fans but it told a perfect story for the Highlanders, Nonu being red carded and the Hurricanes having to play out the game with 14 men. They were bad enough with 15 so how could they possibly win with one short?
So is there anything good we can say about the Hurricanes? Apart from making it to the Cake Tin on time, I honestly don't think there is.
Maybe, just maybe, we can give loosie Victor Vito a pass mark simply because he was a willing ball carrier but even he didn't make the impact you'd anticipate from a player with his reputation.
This game was an illustration of the old adage that no matter how skilful and speedy your backs, you are very unlikely to win a thing unless you get a reasonable share of quality ball.
The Hurricanes forwards - the tighties in particular - gave the impression of either just coming out of a deep sleep or still being in it. Even an old battle-hardened veteran like skipper Andrew Hore struggled to get out of a trot. Why who knows, perhaps they should try getting into the Speight's before kick-off!
The body language of the Hurricanes backs exemplified their frustration at the lethargy of their forwards.You don't often see the likes of Conrad Smith and Cory Jane so obviously peeved at what is happening in front of them and one imagines they weren't too thrilled either at the failure of halfback Tyson Keats and first-five Aaron Cruden to show anything like the sort of control required from players in those pivotal roles.
Cruden is an enigma. Having enormous natural talent counts for little if you can't handle the pressure of the big occasion. It would be wrong to discount him as a serious World Cup contender but there is a lot of work to do before he would be risked in such a white hot environment.
The very nature of Super rugby, though, means a team can be zeroes one week and heroes the next and you can safely wager new Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett has done some stern talking leading into their match with the Crusaders, again at the Cake Tin, this weekend.
Coming so soon after the Canterbury earthquake, the Crusaders camp will have other thoughts on their mind this week which, of course, provides a difficult conundrum for the Hurricanes. Win and the earthquake will be blamed, lose and they will be hung and quartered for not taking advantage of it.
For Hurricanes fans - and yes there are still a few - life has always had its share of tribulations. ... the signs are 2011 isn't about to buck that trend.