Hurricanes
Crusaders
Sky Stadium, Wellington
Championship Standings
The Hurricanes top the table on 35 points with a competition-best +217 differential after dismantling the Brumbies 45–12 in Round 10 — level on points with the Chiefs but with a game in hand. The Crusaders sit 4th on 26 points from 10, a hot-and-cold campaign that's swung from a 50-point home loss to the Brumbies to a 69–26 thrashing of the Drua.
| Pos | Team | P | W | L | PD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hurricanes | 9 | 7 | 2 | +217 | 35 |
| 2 | Chiefs | 10 | 8 | 2 | +129 | 35 |
| 3 | Blues | 10 | 7 | 3 | +82 | 33 |
| 4 | Crusaders | 10 | 5 | 5 | +54 | 26 |
| 5 | Brumbies | 10 | 5 | 5 | +16 | 25 |
| 6 | Queensland Reds | 9 | 5 | 4 | −39 | 22 |
| 7 | Highlanders | 10 | 4 | 6 | −45 | 20 |
| 8 | NSW Waratahs | 9 | 4 | 5 | −43 | 19 |
| 9 | Fijian Drua | 10 | 4 | 6 | −113 | 16 |
| 10 | Western Force | 9 | 3 | 6 | −26 | 14 |
| 11 | Moana Pasifika | 10 | 1 | 9 | −232 | 4 |
Hurricanes
W7, L2The most ruthless attack in the competition — 368 points in 9 games (40.9 per outing) and a +217 differential nobody else is within 80 of. The home record is borderline obscene: five straight bonus-point wins at Sky Stadium with margins of 42, 8, 38, 23 and 33. Both losses are five-pointers on the road in hostile environments — Suva and Hamilton — and the Brumbies demolition last weekend was the perfect rebound from the Chiefs reverse. The only concern is that they've never had to pass a test like this at home in 2026.
Crusaders
W5, L5Five wins, five losses, and not a single one of those 10 fixtures has felt routine. The Crusaders have beaten the Chiefs in Hamilton (43–33) and trampled the Drua 69–26 at home, but they've also lost by 26 to the Brumbies on their own patch and dropped consecutive Australian road trips to the Reds and the Force by five points each. The defence is the headline issue — 284 conceded in 10, more than any other top-five side — and the away record is a worry: just one win on the road since February (the Moana romp). Last weekend's 35–20 over the Waratahs steadied things, but trips to Wellington have been Crusaders territory historically.
Head-to-Head in Wellington
1 – 0 – 5
Hurricanes wins · Draws · Crusaders wins (last 6 meetings in Wellington)
The overall series is essentially level (Hurricanes 24, Crusaders 29, 3 draws across 56 meetings) but Wellington has flipped from a Hurricanes stronghold into a Crusaders happy hunting ground. The Crusaders have won 5 of the last 6 at Sky Stadium, with the lone Hurricanes home win in this run being a 27–26 thriller in 2023. Last meeting in Wellington — April 2025 — Crusaders 31, Hurricanes 24.
Recent Results
| Date | Competition | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 2025 | Super Rugby Pacific | Hurricanes 24–31 Crusaders |
| Feb 2025 | Super Rugby Pacific | Crusaders 33–25 Hurricanes |
| Mar 2024 | Super Rugby Pacific | Crusaders 10–14 Hurricanes |
| Jun 2023 | Super Rugby Pacific | Hurricanes 27–26 Crusaders |
| Apr 2022 | Super Rugby Pacific | Hurricanes 21–24 Crusaders |
| Feb 2022 | Super Rugby Pacific | Crusaders 42–32 Hurricanes |
Average score in the last 6 meetings: Across the last 6 Wellington meetings: Hurricanes 22 – Crusaders 30. The Crusaders have won here in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2025 — only the 27–26 in 2023 has interrupted the streak in the last decade.
Extended Form
Hurricanes12W, 4L (last 12 months)
2026 SRP: wins over Moana, Waratahs (59–19), Force, Highlanders (50–7), Reds (52–14), Blues (42–19), Brumbies (45–12); losses to Drua in Suva (20–25) and Chiefs at FMG (17–22). 2025: beat Chiefs, Highlanders, Reds, Moana, Brumbies; lost to Crusaders 24–31 at Sky Stadium and Brumbies 28–35 in Canberra.
Best home form in the competition over the last two seasons — the Brumbies demolition makes it six straight bonus-point wins at Sky Stadium with an average margin of 31. Jordie Barrett is in MVP form, Cam Roigard's return at halfback has lifted the tempo, and Ruben Love steps in for his 50th cap with a 1,400-minute body of attacking work behind him. The one stain on the recent home ledger is a 24–31 loss to these very Crusaders 12 months ago.
Crusaders8W, 8L (last 12 months)
2026 SRP: W vs Chiefs 43–33 (A), W vs Moana 50–21 (A), W vs Drua 69–26 (H), W vs Waratahs 35–20 (H); L vs Highlanders 23–25 (A), L vs Brumbies 24–50 (H), L vs Blues 13–29 (A), L vs Reds 26–31 (A), L vs Force 26–31 (A). 2025: beat Hurricanes 31–24 in Wellington and 33–25 at AMI; finished 4th, knocked out in semis.
A team that's lost its 'inevitable' aura. The away form is the giveaway — they've now lost 4 of 5 on the road in 2026, including back-to-back five-point reverses to the Reds and the Force that nobody saw coming. They still have the firepower (69 against the Drua, 43 against the Chiefs) but the defensive consistency that defined the seven-time champion era has gone. David Havili's 150th cap will need to be a vintage performance to reverse that road trend.
Hurricanes XV
Four changes and a positional switch from the Brumbies win. An entirely new front row of Xavier Numia, Asafo Aumua and Pasilio Tosi joins Caleb Delany and Warner Dearns in the tight five. Brayden Iose shifts to blindside with Peter Lakai at No 8 and co-captain Du'Plessis Kirifi staying at openside. Backline unchanged: Cam Roigard and Ruben Love (50th Hurricanes appearance) in the halves, Jordie Barrett and Billy Proctor in midfield, Josh Moorby and Fehi Fineanganofo on the wings, Callum Harkin at fullback.
Crusaders XV
David Havili captains the side for his 150th Crusaders appearance. George Bower, Codie Taylor and Fletcher Newell make up the front row, with Antonio Shalfoon and Tahlor Cahill locking the scrum. Ethan Blackadder and Leicester Fainga'anuku flank Christian Lio-Willie at No 8. Noah Hotham and Taha Kemara form the halves, with Havili at 12 alongside Braydon Ennor; Macca Springer and Dallas McLeod on the wings, Johnny McNicholl at fullback.
Key Matchups
The decisive matchup is the No 10 axis: Ruben Love on his 50th cap against Taha Kemara, with Cam Roigard's tempo at 9 the lever that unlocks the wider channels. Jordie Barrett and Billy Proctor in midfield is a step up in quality from the Havili/Ennor pairing, particularly defensively — Havili at 35 will be tested in the wide channels. The Crusaders' route in is the same one the Reds and Force used: low-block defence, scrum penalties through Newell, and Kemara's boot pinning the Hurricanes back. But Codie Taylor and Fletcher Newell aside, this isn't the Crusaders pack of three years ago, and the Hurricanes' new front row only needs to hold parity.
Match Forecast
The scorecard lands at +14, anchored by a four-point form gap and a backline mismatch the Crusaders have no obvious answer to. The Hurricanes have averaged 41 points across their five home games in 2026 and just dismantled the second-placed Brumbies 45–12 — the same Brumbies who put 50 on this Crusaders side at AMI in February. Jordie Barrett, Cam Roigard and Ruben Love are an All Black-quality 9/10/12 axis, and the Crusaders' road defence has leaked 31 in each of their last two away fixtures (Reds and Force).
The reason this isn't a 90% call is the H2H — the Crusaders have won 5 of the last 6 at Sky Stadium, including 31–24 here in April 2025. They know how to win in Wellington, Codie Taylor and Fletcher Newell are still genuine set-piece weapons, and a David Havili 150th-cap night will be emotionally charged. If the Crusaders get the scrum wobbling and Kemara's boot finds the corners, they can keep this within a converted try at the break. But the Hurricanes' attacking ceiling is too high and the Crusaders' defensive consistency too patchy to project anything other than a 15-plus-point home win once the contest opens up after halftime.
Hurricanes by 15+ at Sky Stadium — the Crusaders' Wellington spell is finally broken and the table leaders all but lock up the No 1 seed.