This week’s Hurricanes game was a “home” game in New Plymouth. They played one of the new teams this year – the Western Force from Perth. The ‘Canes came out and scored three unanswered tries within half an hour, but then didn’t score again until the final five minutes, making a bit of a meal of a number of good opportunities. Having finally got our bonus point try (you get a bonus point if you score four tries in the game) and having withstood a lot of Force pressure we unfortunately conceded a try in the dying moments so were unable to keep a clean sheet. Final score Hurricanes 29 Force 5. So, another five pointer and good solid defence, but fustrating with the number of mistakes made, especially the number of penalties conceded. Next week brings us the first home game of the season in Wellington against the Cats, which should be a good game, but still plenty of room for improvement early in the season.