View photosKEY POINTS:
Plenty of endeavour but way too much mediocrity. Lots of booming hits, crunching drives, lost ball and lost chances.
But there was a final sting as the Hurricanes' wing Hosea Gear completed a length-of-the-field final bonus-point try which might sneak them into the playoffs if they keep winning.
It was way too easy for the Hurricanes early on and they seemed to have found their mojo when they stacked on three tries, all to their reconditioned All Blacks. Two came from flimsy defence before Jason Eaton grabbed a 40m interception.
It gave the Hurricanes some of the confidence which has been ebbing away during this tournament. They had the stronger scrum, used Rodney So'oialo with success in the lineout and began to look more decisive with their tackles and offloads, there were even hints they had trained together more than once a week. Fill-in first five-eighths Piri Weepu showed his versatile talents again to lead the Hurricanes assault but they had to bow to the visitors for the try of the match.
Crisp passing in a backline move from a Cheetahs scrum put left wing Gavin Passens clear and he romped in for the sort of try coaches plan but rarely witness.
When Cheetahs captain Juan Smith barged over after a series of lineout drives soon after the break, the Hurricanes defence had to crank up a gear to repel the visitors, whose physical approach was helped by their increased amount of ball.
Fullback Philip Burger was denied a counter-attacking try by Luke Andrews' desperate covering tackle and the decision of the video referee as the Cheetahs continued to exert the sort of late pressure they put on the Blues last week. In the wash-up though, like last week, they lacked the class to claim the victory.
Hurricanes: C. Masoe, J. Collins, J. Eaton, H. Gear tries; P. Weepu 4 con, 3 pen.
Cheetahs: G. Passens, J. Smith tries; W. de Waal con, pen. HT: 24-10.
