Mark Hammett: Good Coach or Great Team?

The Hurricanes have won 4 games this season after 7 games played. Many tipped the Hurricanes to win only 4 games this season which could still happen but is unlikely now with the Hurricanes already having made the annual trip to South Africa and Perth and won an impressive 2 games out of 3 there.

Last night, the Hurricanes produced a sublime performance in front of the Taranaki fans, beating one of the favourites of the competition at the start of the season, the Sharks 42-18. They learnt well from last week to keep applying the pressure for 80 minutes despite having an initial big lead rather than take the foot of the pedal like they did against the Cheetahs in Wellington the week before.

What was impressive about the win in New Plymouth last night was the fact that even with a bonus point well under the bag, the Hurricanes never stopped playing and continued to look for tries to put the game out of bed. What was even more impressive was that the Hurricanes did it despite having far less of the ball than the Sharks who must have been shell shocked to find themselves 25-3 down at halftime despite having more than 50% of the ball in the first half.

Andre Taylor has been a huge spark at the back

The Hurricanes had played like they have all season - fast, exciting, counter-attacking rugby with their young backs stretching the play across the field and their equally young forwards busting a gap when they find it. Their defence is a weakpoint but is to be expected from such a young side and has shown signs of gradual improvement.

So is it down to Mark Hammett or is this team actually rather great? It's a bit of both but I think the coach deserves some credit for sticking to his philosophy despite all the criticism and trouble last season. When Hammett was appointed Hurricanes coach in 2010, he had a plan and a philosophy all along. Sure it was very much an imitation of the highly successful Crusaders imitation which was at odds with the Hurricanes way of playing but at least he had a plan and despite unrest from the established Hurricanes like Hore, Gear, Nonu, Weepu, Tialata & Jane, he persevered knowing he was onto something.

Beauden Barrett - future All Black star?

Through a difficult 2011 as the Hurricanes lost games and crowds from the stadium, Hammett's plans for 2012 were slowly coming to fruition. Amidst the news of All Blacks Aaron Cruden, Ma'a Nonu, Andrew Hore, Hosea Gear & Piri Weepu leaving the region, the Hurricanes were signing young players like Jeffrey Toomaga-Allen. Other young promising players like Charlie Ngatai, TJ Perenara, Jack Lam, Brad Shields and Beauden Barrett were also secured subsequently. Later on, more experienced players like Tim Bateman and Ben May were also signed. Eventually, Cory Jane and Conrad Smith also stayed on.

Jeff Toomaga-Allen: highly impressive this season

From the outset, it looked like a Hurricanes team bereft of star power, and likely to lack excitement. In fact, they said it was very much a weakened and ravaged team. But all along, Hammett knew that these were exactly the players he wanted in his team playing his type of rugby. That is the mark of a good coach - yes there is definitely talent in the team but it is definitely not a team of established stars and one that would have required a damn good coach to get them where they are and tell them what they were doing wrong.  

The latest testament to that was the Hurricanes' ability to learn quickly from the mistakes made against the Cheetahs and bounce back brilliantly against the Sharks - funnily enough they did that against the Blues after a tight loss against the Highlanders a few weeks ago.

Bateman: player of the old mould - smart and skilled

The Hurricanes probably will lose out to the Crusaders after the bye next week. Chances are they probably will lose out on a playoff spot in what is shaping up to be a tight Super Rugby season and a highly competitive New Zealand conference. But they certainly will lose out on the wooden spoon that many tipped them to hold - they could still finish last in the NZ conference although that is not really something to be ashamed of and at this stage, it looks like the injury-ravaged Blues are set for that 5th and last spot.

But perhaps, Mark Hammett finally should get the credit he deserves for re-energizing this Hurricanes and possibly building a championship winning team in the next few seasons. At least, he deserves credit for sticking with his guns despite all that pressure from the Dominion Post last season and now being able to show everyone why he did what he did last season.

So come on Canes fans, fill that stadium and support your team!