Hurricanes Star in Wellington's Win
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Southland were up against a stronger Wellington side today with the Lions benefitting from the All Blacks off a week with TJ Perenara and Ardie Savea starting the match.
Wellington had another two All Blacks in Vaea Fifita and Asafo Aumua starting in their pack. Wellington also has a strong Hurricanes contingent in the side with the likes of Jackson Garden-Bachop, Thomas Umaga-Jensen, Matt Proctor, Ben Lam, Wes Goosen, James O'Reilly and few others donning the black jersey.
With so many stars in action, we picked our top Performers from the clash that saw Wellington claim a 52-7 win.
TJ Perenara - Wellington
Steven Hansen will be pleased about how well his second choice halfback performed in this match.
Perenara was fantastic in all facets of the game and hardly put a foot wrong in his 60-minute performance.
The lively halfback was involved in almost all of six of Wellington's first-half try.
40 - @WgtnRugby are just the third team in the last six @Mitre10Cup seasons to score 40+ points in the first half of a game. Ravage.#WELvSOU pic.twitter.com/WAbvxHSVRW
— OptaJason (@OptaJason) August 31, 2018
Vaea Fifita - Wellington
A robust and lively performance by the Hurricanes and All Blacks blindside flanker.
The Southland defence struggled to stop Fifita from providing his side with front foot ball with Fifita and Asafo Aumua making a handful of metres.
Ardie Savea - Wellington
Like Perenara, Ardie Savea was sent to Wellington to get some much-needed game time.
Savea was in fine form making running metres with ease before offloading or getting the ball wide for the likes of Ben Lam and Wes Goosen.
He also weighed in with a few turnovers, when Southland had the ball.
Ben Lam - Wellington
The Hurricanes flyer broke Super Rugby's recorded for the most tries scored in a single Super Rugby season earlier this year.
After two games Lam hadn't crossed the whitewash for Wellington but it was third time lucky for Lam today.
The big winger scored three tries today and was a dangerous threat to Southland throughout the 80 minutes.
