The early Saturday afternoon match in Johannesburg saw the Hurricanes outgun the Emirates Lions 37-17 thanks to a powerful second-half display after the teams were 10-all at the break.
The local franchise played at home which also marked their last Vodacom Super Rugby fixture of the season in front of their fans on June 8. The last play-off match will be against Vodacom Bulls on June 15 at Loftus Versfeld. The match starts at 5.05pm.
The Jaguares clinched the South African Conference title when they defeated the Cell C Sharks 34-7 in a clinical display in Buenos Aires on Saturday evening in the last match of the weekend’s penultimate regular round of Vodacom Super Rugby fixtures.
While the DHL Stormers didn’t get the bonus point they were hoping for, they nevertheless secured an important 31-18 home win in Cape Town over the Sunwolves earlier on Saturday evening.
On Friday morning (SA time), the Vodacom Bulls again fought back tenaciously to draw their last Australasian tour match 24-24 with the Highlanders, their second successive stalemate following their draw the previous week in Auckland with the Blues.
After another weekend of thrilling action, the Jaguares have increased their lead in the local standings to 46 points, the Vodacom Bulls have 36 and they are followed by the Emirates Lions (35), DHL Stormers (34) and Cell C Sharks (33).
As things stand at the moment, the teams from Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town are due to play in the play-offs by virtue of their wild card positions on the overall log (top eight teams in the combined points standings), however, those final permutations can still change after next week.
In next weekend’s final round matches, the Jaguares host the Sunwolves on June 14 in Buenos Aires (Saturday morning 12.10am SA time). That encounter is followed by two local derby matches – the first one kicks off at 3.05pm in Cape Town where the DHL Stormers host the Cell C Sharks and then at 5.15pm, the Jukskei River Derby, in Pretoria between the Vodacom Bulls and the Emirates Lions.
The other round 17 results of the weekend:
June 7
Reds 29, Blues 28
June 8
Crusaders 66, Rebels 0
Waratahs 24, Brumbies 35
