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Hurricanes confident they are back on track

Wellington - Selection considerations are still an important part of the Hurricanes' processes ahead of their final preliminary Super Rugby game against the Chiefs in Hamilton on Friday (kick-off 09:35 SA time).

Midfield calls in the absence of Matt Proctor and Vince Aso had seen Ngani Laumape and Wes Goosen combine well against the Blues last week.

The sight of players in the back three working themselves into action in broken play was something that also encouraged assistant coach Jason Holland.

Holland said he asked his back three to be busy in games and if that meant they were out of position for a few moments exploring options they had seen then he was all for it.

Holland revealed the Hurricanes wanted to gather momentum, especially as a result of where they had come from this season and having ended a run of three losses at the weekend with their win over the Blues.

"We want to win and make sure we are at home and give our boys an opportunity to play in front of our awesome crowd again next week so we're attacking it as if it was any other day and we want to beat the Chiefs," he told the All Blacks' official website.

The win over the Blues had been positive and they felt they achieved some momentum as a result.

"It was good to kick on but we are well aware we still want to be better in some areas," said Holland.
The win was achieved after they had worked on some areas in their game, and some skills requirements and they felt they had resolved those and stepped forward.

"We want to continue that so we give ourselves every opportunity to play a good brand of footy and get our skills right," he said.

"It's the same old thing. We know what they're going to bring, they're going to be physical and direct and it's always an interesting old battle between the two forward packs.

"So we know we need to be direct and nice and strong physically around collisions, around carry, around tackle."

Holland said both teams would probably have a bigger picture plan from the game but for the Hurricanes the first consideration was winning the game by doing the things they do well.

"We still want to do everything we can to put them under pressure this weekend and not hold too much back," he added.

The success against the Blues at the weekend had been down to the set-piece abilities of the side. They had a square scrum, they got good ball off the back of the lineout which was complemented by the backs running good lines and taking good options.

"There's all sorts of moving parts in these things and one thing helps a lot of other things come a lot easier and that's what happened in the set-piece," explained Holland.

Focusing on their own game and achieving the right options instead of concentrating too much on the opposition was the key.

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