Canes Outclass Rebels, Close In On Chiefs

The Hurricanes have thumped the joint Australian conference leaders in Super Rugby.

Last year's runners-up have scored 31 unanswered points to outclass the Rebels 38-13 in Melbourne.

It's the Hurricanes' fourth straight bonus point win and they're now just four points behind the New Zealand conference-leading Chiefs.

Hurricanes assistant coach John Plumtree says they were aware that a lot of pundits were picking the Rebels to beat them.

"We were on edge, and we just wanted to perform really well, particularly when we didn't have the ball and put them under pressure and I think we did that tonight."

Plumtree says it's a big result to get five points on the road, and it was "good to see some continuity in our play and score some good tries."

The Hurricanes are now third in the conference, two points behind the Crusaders, who earlier downed the Jaguares 32-15 in Ryan Crotty's 100th Super Rugby match.

Crotty says after all the talk of his feat, it was pleasing to see some action on the field.

"A few of the guys talked about in the past, a few guys had played big games that would come on the wrong side of the ledger."

The Crusaders have now won six straight since their season-opening loss to the Chiefs.

Meanwhile, the Cheetahs fell just short of scoring the most points in a Super Rugby match, embarrassing the Sunwolves 92-17 in Bloemfontein, outscoring the Japanese outfit 14 tries to two.

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