KEY POINTS:
Fielding players out of position is always a difficult roll of the dice. Let's rush quickly past the names of Christian Cullen and Leon MacDonald and settle on more comfortable examples such as Isa Nacewa and Jon Preston.
To the list of 'positives', we can now add Piri
Weepu. The stocky Hurricanes halfback made an admirably good fist of first five-eighths as the 'Canes held off the Bulls at the Cake Tin last night.
All right, Daniel Carter he wasn't - although his goalkicking was 100 per cent effective in the first half, which is distinctly Carter-ish - but first five is such a difficult position, it was impossible not to admire Weepu's maturity and sang froid last night.
Preston was the All Black halfback who filled in with distinction at first five for the All Blacks on several occasions - including the 1996 series in South Africa when the All Blacks finally dealt to that particular lion in its own den for the first time in more than 70 years of trying. Nacewa has played everywhere in the Blues backline except halfback and you get the feeling he'd be able to do that as well.
Weepu was playing at 10 because the Hurricanes brains trust had decided Jimmy Gopperth and Southland's Blair Stewart weren't quite cutting the mustard. Neither were the Hurricanes as a whole.
Some of those problems - an inability to undo the Bulls defence overmuch and poor ball security - remained and that was why the only scoring method by halftime was penalties, four from Weepu and two from Bulls No 10 Derick Hougaard.
At least the Hurricanes began to look more like hurricanes, as opposed to little puffs of wind. There was Jerry Collins powering the ball up at the Bulls and reeling off a couple of those tackles that can re-assemble the recipient's DNA. There was fellow loose forwards Chris Masoe and Rodney So'oialo also running aggressively and paying close attention to the tackled ball.
But there was precious little thrust and, with Ma'a Nonu having one of those nights where he spills the ball in the tackle and makes offloads to receivers only he can see, the Hurricanes never really approached anything cyclonic.
In fact, after a barren first half where neither side looked remotely like scoring a try and turnovers threatened to become a plague, only Weepu's deft little kicks threatened.
So'oialo, however, began to get some sniping runs going. Paul Tito got over the line after some good work by halfback Alby Mathewson and Masoe but was called back for a lineout infringement only the referee spotted.
Finally, the Hurricanes' weight of possession and domination of territory started to tell. The Bulls were barely threatening - their 'wooden soldiers' attack giving them even less show of breaching the Hurricanes defence and left winger Bryan Habana a lonely and mostly unused figure.
It had to happen - and it did. A delicate Weepu grubber saw Habana make a mistake. So'oialo pounced and flipped a pass out of the back of his hand and fullback Corey Jane led his opposite number Jaco van der Westhuyzen a merry dance as the Bulls player made the schoolboy mistake of trying to defend the ball carrier while running backwards.
Jane feinted right and skipped left. Van der Westhuyzen, instead of turning frontwards and tackling, followed the feint. So Jane skipped right.
Ten metres of this left-right skippy stuff and the line was approaching - and Jane made the scoring pass to winger Hosea Gear just after van der Westhuyzen decided he better attempt a tackle before the dead ball line.
Jane also gets an honourable mention for dragging Habana down as the Bulls tried to hit back and, at 17-9 down, the Bulls forwards put the Hurricanes under the greatest pressure of the match.
They withstood it, however, and nearly scored themselves before the inevitable turnover and penalty.
And this tedious match was safe when replacement forward Francois van Schouwenberg was sin-binned for a ludicrous bit of pushing and shoving with hooker Andrew Hore with six minutes to go.
Still, there were signs to suggest that those sides yet to meet the Hurricanes - the Highlanders and Crusaders among them - might have some trouble with them.
Hurricanes 17 (H. Gear try, P. Weepu 4 pens), Bulls 9 (D. Hougaard 3 pens)
