Super Rugby Pacific: Hurricanes’ season over, Brumbies head to semi-finals

The Brumbies have stopped the Hurricanes in their tracks, winning an absorbing encounter 35-28 in Canberra. The result sends the Australians into a semi-final next weekend against the Chiefs, while the Hurricanes head home ruing a slow start to the season that ultimately cost them at the business end.

Clark Laidlaw's side looked to be in control with a 14-7 lead after 20 minutes, thanks to tries by Ruben Love and Fehi Fineangeanofo. However, the home side rallied to grab the lead through strong set piece work that led to tries by Billy Pollard and Allan Alaalatoa. Tom Wright extended the Brumbies' lead after the break, and then James Slipper made it a rare try each for the starting front row to give the Brumbies a 35-21 lead.

Despite a powerful effort by Pasilio Tosi that brought the Hurricanes back within a try, the Brumbies were in no mood to repeat what happened last weekend when they surrendered the lead to a fast-finishing Crusaders side.

The rest of the game was a frustrating endeavour for the Hurricanes, who simply weren't allowed any field position and were hampered by uncharacteristic handling errors.

The most bitterly disappointing aspect was that up until kick-off, it would've been presumed that the result of this game didn't really matter anyway. However, the Blues' upset win over the Chiefs changed all that, making this game a sudden-death affair.

Had the Hurricanes picked up more points at the start of the season, when they only won one out of their first five games, they almost certainly wouldn't have found themselves in this position.

Read how the game unfolded with RNZ's live blog: