Hurricanes coach Jason Holland is trying not to consider the maths.
After finishing bottom of the Super Rugby Aotearoa ladder with just two wins from eight games, the Hurricanes have made a fast start to the transtasman competition, picking up the maximum 10 points through the first two rounds aftertheir 35-15 win over the Rebels on Friday night.
However, despite that strong start on the ladder, Holland noted his desire for this campaign was to see improvement from his team.
"You've just got to put yourself in the hunt. We've sort of been asked the question around bonus points and points differential and those sorts of things, but I'm really wary about talking around those things," Holland said after the win.
"We need to think about performance and those things will take care of themselves. I think our performance was better; in a number of areas, we were better, but we have to keep growing that performance to make sure those wins and those tries keep coming. So, we'll see. We've got a big week – I think the Force will be another step up from what we've seen and our performance will have to go up as well."
The Hurricanes scored five tries in their win over the Rebels. Photo / Photosport
Following the win over the Rebels in Wellington, the Hurricanes will end the round no lower than second on the ladder, with only themselves, the Highlanders and the Blues securing bonus-point wins in their opening matches. However, the Highlanders were only able to take four points from the Force in Perth on Friday night, and sit a point behind the Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes gets to avoid the long trip to Perth for next weekend's match against the Force, who have played both of their allotted home games for the five-round competition already and will spend the rest of the competition in New Zealand.
The Force have shown they can be a dangerous side, but in their match against the Highlanders, they were unable to turn their pressure into points and fell to a 10-point defeat.
While the Highlanders came away with the win, co-captain Ash Dixon said it was disappointing they weren't able to come away with the maximum points haul.
"I was stoked with the outcome [but] I thought we were a bit soft there at the end and I thought we had the bonus point wrapped up but we gave it away which was pretty disappointing.
"We applied really good pressure in the right areas, but our kicking game was a bit off, and really our skillset at times. It's really frustrating we didn't get the bonus point when we had it in the bag; we need to look at that."
