Hurricanes openside Ardie Savea has lauded his side's 83-17 thrashing of the Sunwolves but says they lost their way as the match progressed
The 23-year-old got his Super Rugby campaign off to a scintillating start in Tokyo, scoring two tries and making two assists as the defending champions cruised to victory.
Yet having rampaged to an 83-5 lead with 20 minutes to play, the Canes' glut of tries subsided and they instead conceded two Sunwolves consolation efforts.
The 12-cap All Black said his side's first hour of play was near-flawless but was irked by their inability to keep focused with the job done.
The late losses of Blade Thomson with a shoulder injury and the sin-binned Michael Fatialofa also didn't help the side's cause.
"It kind of blew out a bit but we wanted to maintain our structure and keep to our system, and not do stuff we hadn't trained," Savea said.
"That last 20, we kind of fell off and they came back firing, so we've got to look at that.
"We always knew they'd hang onto us and keep fighting."
Savea said the Hurricanes squad had drawn a line in the sand on their successful 2016 campaign, winning the club's inaugural Super Rugby crown.
But they were keen to repeat the feat in 2017, as they ponder what could be a similarly straight-forward clash with the Rebels next week.
The side's first Kiwi derby against the Chiefs will follow in a fortnight.
"We've put an end to last year, so starting well is good for us and hopefully we can stay consistent," Savea said.
Share
