They were second best in the contact areas and, worryingly, at the scrum after dominating that area against the Lions and before that the Chiefs. They also lost four lineouts.
"When we got into that contact area, they certainly dominated that and we struggled to get go-forward ball," said Boyd. "We knew what we were going to get. What we got was exactly what we thought we'd get and we didn't cope with it well enough.
"We've had some good patches and we've had some average performances and in this particular [playing] group, we need to get a level of consistency that we have been searching for," he said.
The loss will bring back memories of the Hurricanes' opening night defeat to the Brumbies in Canberra, a 52-10 thumping which appeared to be an anomaly until this latest result.
The one highlight might have been the performance of flanker Ardie Savea, who led the way with a game-high 16 tackles and two turnovers.
