Richard Loe: Hurricanes work just beginning

Whatever Hurricanes' Chris Boyd (left) and John Plumtree are doing, they have got it right in the Super 15.

I hope the Hurricanes, who have won their opening three Super 15 games on the road, don't get back to Wellington and think the hard work is done. It's only just beginning.

Whatever Chris Boyd and John Plumtree are doing, they have got it right. When was the last time the Hurricanes started a campaign like this? By anyone's standards, to win three consecutively away from home is a fantastic return.

But that doesn't relieve any pressure. It only adds to it because Hurricanes fans are going to have an expectation now - and that expectation is that their team are going to win.

Not only that, I'd say it's pretty important to engage those fans early. The Hurricanes have seen their home crowds dwindle in recent years and now they have a chance to get some people back.

There will be interest in the team again, given the way they have started. Their backline - with Ma'a Nonu back - is the sort people can get excited about.

My only worry is they fall back into their wicked, old ways. The culture at the Hurricanes hasn't always been great. Things happening there a few years back didn't help them perform.

Things such as Neemia Tialata and John Schwalger having burger-eating contests - that may have been just the tip of the iceberg.

So I wonder whether the Hurricanes have enjoyed being on the road. Maybe they have been in tour mode - in lockdown and away from distractions. That mentality, that culture, will have helped.

They have to stay in that mode now they are back in Wellington. And I think they will. I get the impression they are a different team, with different attitudes, different coaches and a different focus to their predecessors.

Other than Nonu, the only two other players who would have been around in those bad, old days would have been Conrad Smith and Victor Vito. And were it not for rugby, both of those two would be enjoying careers in different fields. They are intelligent men and I think they will both, along with the other senior leaders in the team, make sure the Hurricanes knuckle down and keep doing what they are doing.

As for the Blues, they are the polar opposite - three games and three defeats. The positive is that they have at least got the trip to South Africa out of the way.

But you'd have to question their self-belief. You have to ask whether the coaching team have enough collective experience and knowledge to start delivering results.

I don't want to be overly harsh, but forwards coach Glenn Moore failed with the Highlanders and then surfaced in the Heartland Championship. That's a long way from Super Rugby and I would say that, individually, Boyd and Plumtree each have more experience than the Blues coaching team do combined.

There's time yet for the Blues to turn things around but they can't afford too many more defeats.