'Canes can't rely on late surges

Hurricanes captain Conrad Smith is delighted his side was able to pull their 26-25 win out of the fire against the Blues, but knows a last gasp effort won’t save them every week.

While the Blues dominated the majority of the possession, the ‘Canes were able to soak up all the pressure and launch a final attack that produced the match-winning try for Smith.

“It was one of those games where it was funny how things turn out,” Smith told Sportal.co.nz.

“We were under a lot of pressure and we kept saying to ourselves ‘hang in there, hang in there’ and I kept saying it to the forwards, but it won’t happen every game that we can rely on winning games like that but it was nice to do it,” he added.

Rookie flyhalf Beauden Barrett was the architect of the try, and Smith heaped praise on the young playmaker.

“Good players find space, and also know where others are. I gave him a little challenge with the conversion but was pleased to see he got it over,” Smith quipped.