The stats don't lie: Week six review

Dan Kirkpatrick again only nailed 50 percent of his kicks at goal. Photo / Getty Images

The Hurricanes and Crusaders were on differing ends of high-scoring affairs this weekend, while the Blues and Chiefs battled out a close, low-scoring affair in Hamilton.

REBELS v HURRICANES (42-25)

- After 17 minutes of this game the Hurricanes were up 17-0, but then proceded to step off the gas and hand the game to the Rebels who went on to score 42 points in little over half an hour.

- The Hurricanes made eight clean linebreaks in this game, but 11 handling errors saw the majority of their try-scoring chances bombed.

- Dan Kirkpatrick again only nailed 50 percent of his kicks at goal, landing just one penalty and one conversion.

- Lack of numbers to the breakdown saw the Hurricanes penalised on 4 occasions for not releasing the ball in the tackle. 70 percent of their penalties have occurred at the breakdown this season.

- The Hurricanes have now conceded 123 points and 15 tries in their four games played, while only scoring six tries in their total of 80 points.

CHIEFS v BLUES (13-16)

- It took almost 70 minutes for the Blues to work out how to play wet weather rugby but Luke McAlister's boot saw them through to a 16-13 win, landing three from four penalties and nailing the conversion to their only try of the game.

- There were 21 handling errors in this game, 10 from the Blues and 11 from the Chiefs.

- The Chiefs outscored the Blues two tries to one and also had three clean linebreaks to one, but got hammered in the penalty count 15-6.

- The Chiefs conceded nine penalties at the breakdown and three scrum penalties.

- Good contesting at the lineout saw the Chiefs steal two throws off the Blues, although the Chiefs had three of their own throws deemed not straight.

- Brendon Leonard played his 50th game for the Chiefs.

- The win by the Blues sees them sitting second in the NZ conference while the Chiefs are in last place behind the Hurricanes.

CRUSADERS v SHARKS (44-28)

- 30,094 fans turned up at Twickenham to watch a spectacle of power and running as the Crusaders and Sharks ran in a total of nine tries.

- The Crusaders had already scored their bonus point fourth try by half time, going into the break leading 34-18.

- Before Dan Carter left the field injured in the 64th minute he had racked up a personal tally of 20 points with a try and a 100 percent kicking sucess rate with four conversions and two penalties.

- Sean Maitland scored two of the Crusaders' five tries, and remains the top NZ try scorer with a total of seven.

- The Crusaders played the last five minutes of the game with only 14 men having emptied their bench of reserves which meant no replacement for Sam Whitelock when he left the field injured. Despite the Sharks being hot on attack, they conceded no points during this time.

- The first half of this game was remarkable for the fact that only five penalties were blown, three conceded by the Crusaders and just two by the Sharks.

- Yet again the Crusaders loosies excelled at the breakdown winning four clean turnovers, while the pack dealt the Sharks' scrum a lesson driving them off the ball three times.

- The Crusaders lost three All Blacks to injury during this match with Dan Carter, Kieran Read and Sam Whitelock all having to the leave the field.

- This win takes the Crusaders to the top of the NZ conference, and second place behind the unbeaten Stormers on the overall points table

- Herald online