Canes sneak up on five in a row

You may not have noticed but the Hurricanes have won their past four games.

While everyone's stressing about the over-the-hill Highlanders, pondering the Crusaders' injury woes, marvelling at the Chiefs' consistency or mesmerised by the Prince of Positivity, Sir John Kirwan, the Canes have loped into fifth place in the Super Rugby standings.

Yes, their defence has been leaky and the bounce of the ball certainly went in their direction as they dispatched the Waratahs last weekend, but it's hard to deny Mark Hammett's side are genuine threats this year.

They've got arguably the world's best wing in Julian Savea, the premier centre in Conrad Smith, a livewire halfback by the name of TJ Perenara, an All Black first-five who can also play at fullback, a dynamic loose trio and a veteran second row.

Despite all the things there are to get excited about, Hammett refuses to let his men get ahead of themselves.

After last weekend's game he said his team weren't the sort of side who could afford to gloat about a four-game winning run.

"We can take confidence out of it, but I think we are a team that sometimes, if you get too excited and too ahead of yourself, then your performance and the micro detail in your performance can drop by 3 or 4 per cent," Hammett said. "Now for us, as a team, if we drop 3 or 4 per cent, that's the difference of winning and losing."

If the Canes can topple Kirwan's Blues at Eden Park tonight, that would make it five in a row. Considering the Hurricanes' next two games are home outings against the Western Force and the Stormers, it's not inconceivable that Hammett's men could find themselves on a seven-match winning run before their trip to South Africa.

A particularly well-used cliche in a rugby player's handbook is the one about how you take it only one game at a time, but a few Canes may have looked at the draw and dared to dream.

"You've got to be really cautious around reading good media, as you've got to be cautious around reading bad media," Hammett said.

"We just need to be really focused on our vision and our goals and what we do each week and that's what we do and control that part of it.

"We are still human, we look at the boards, we look to see where we are going and how teams are tracking and that's natural when you're in a competition where you want to win."

As the Hurricanes progress through the season without too many plaudits, the captain, Smith, says he has no problems with being the dark horse.

"It does suit us. Well, it suits me, anyway, because I don't have to talk [to the media] every week, but I think there's a real advantage of when you play your best footy and I don't think we've played our best footy yet and that's a good thing," he said.

"Because I think there's going to be some really tough games ahead and it's still early days now.

"We are not even halfway through the competition, so I think it's good, it makes it easier to keep the boys grounded when no one's talking about us, and that's been pretty important.

"I think we've had a really good attitude so far this year and I think it's going to be important if you want to go further."APNZ