Fifita helps Hurricanes blow away Blues in second half

(Reuters) - Wellington lock Vaea Fifita scored a brace of tries after the break as the Hurricanes rallied from a 10-point deficit to record a vital 37-27 Super Rugby victory over the Blues to close in on the New Zealand conference leaders on Saturday. Flyhalf Bauden Barrett was perfect from the kicking tee, going seven-for-seven, as Reg Goodes and Dane Coles also touched down to cancel out two first half tries from Auckland flanker Jerome Kaino and another from Kara Pryor for the visitors. The victory lifts the Hurricanes up to 44 points from 13 games, one behind the Canterbury Crusaders and two adrift of the Waikato Chiefs with two fixtures remaining. The defeat leaves the Blues (30 points) on the brink of elimination. "We've been moving along under the radar which is pretty good but the pressure was on us to win. It wasn't pretty but we got the job done," Hurricanes captain and All Blacks hooker Coles said in a pitchside interview. The tone was set for a scintillating first half of attacking rugby when Barrett and Blues inside centre Piers Francis traded penalties at the end of the opening possessions for both sides. The first try came after 10 minutes when Blues flanker Pryor dived over in the corner to instigate an exhilarating sequence of counter-attacking rugby that saw five tries shared between the teams in a breathless 13-minute spell. BIG HITS Hurricanes prop Goodes trundled over almost immediately and after Barrett converted to make it 10-10, Blues flanker Kaino touched down either side of an opportunistic Coles effort for the hosts as the contest swayed from end-to-end. Francis converted all three Blues tries as the visitors went to the break with a 24-17 lead after 40 minutes of missed tackles, big hits and line breaks that could have led the spectators to believe they were watching a sevens match. The Blues are renowned for being front runners and would have felt confident of preventing a fourth straight defeat to the Hurricanes when Francis slotted home another penalty early in the second half to stretch further clear. Barrett, however, led the comeback with two quick penalties and the Hurricanes took their first lead of the match since the fifth minute when Fifita rounded off a clever set piece to score under the posts as Wellington seized control. The home side plugged the holes in their leaky defence from the first half in the face of some ferocious Blues attacks and Fifita was on hand to give the Hurricanes some breathing room when he slipped a tackle and strolled over in the 70th minute. "We played the way we wanted to in the first forty but were unable to come out and execute in the second half," Blues skipper James Parsons said. "A little indiscipline and some moments of magic from Vaea Fifita cost us in the end." (Reporting by John O'Brien in Singapore; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)