Scoring four of the side’s seven tries in the game, Fineanganofo, who is leaving New Zealand to join Newcastle Red Bulls in Britain after this season, finished off plenty of good work by those inside of him as the Hurricanes dominated much of the contest.
They took full advantage of a poor Brumbies performance, with the Canberra side at sixes and sevens in the first half. When they did find a way into Hurricanes territory, their execution was diabolical. First five-eighths Declan Meredith missed the touch line and instead put the ball dead from an attacking penalty twice in the first half, while their attacking lineouts were easy picking for the Hurricanes.
The visitors showed an improved performance in the second half. Replacement first five-eighths Tane Edmed got the call to run the second 40 minutes and made his mark, while the side showed a bit more shape on attack, but they were always facing a tough task to come back from 19-0 down at the break.
“Very satisfying and pleasing,” Hurricanes co-captain Jordie Barrett told Sky Sport of the performance.
“A lot of our good work was off the back of some quality defence from our big boys. It was fast, there was a lot of lactic acid in the legs from all the boys but we just kept going to the well, which was nice. It’s a good Brumbies side so we had to be on top of our game.”
Under the roof, the Hurricanes played a fast game with plenty of ball movement, though Barrett noted that didn’t come as easy as some might think.
“It was actually pretty difficult to move the ball, believe it or not, under the roof. It was getting humid and pretty greasy so we had to be pretty disciplined in our own half and just try play down the right end of the field and try to capitalise when they tried to overplay their hand.”
It was a deft touch from lock Caleb Delany that set the Hurricanes in motion. He dropped a lovely pass off to first five-eighths Ruben Love, who hit the ball with pace and split the defence. Love made it into the Brumbies’ 22, and the Hurricanes were able to spread it wide to Fineanganofo to score in the seventh minute.
He had his second in the 20th minute, running a nice line two off an attacking scrum, before crossing for his third just before halftime.
It took 46 minutes for the Brumbies to get on the board; David Feliuai scoring off a magic pass from Corey Toole but the side had a mountain to climb.
Josh Moorby scored less than five minutes later, and a fourth to Fineanganofo before the 60-minute mark pushed the lead out and while Toole swooped on a loose ball to score a breakaway try in the 69th minute, late tries to Moorby and Jone Rova gave the Hurricanes a big win.
Hurricanes 45 (Fehi Fineanganofo 4, Josh Moorby 2, Jone Rova tries; Ruben Love 5 cons)
Brumbies 12 (David Feliuai, Corey Toole tries; Tane Edmed con)
HT: 19-0
