Super Rugby’s most consistent team over the last two seasons squares up against the competition’s most improved side when the Hurricanes and the Lions clash in Wellington this morning.
The Hurricanes, much to their chagrin, will however recall that consistency in the league stages did not count for much as the Highlanders’ resolve ran deeper than most pundits expected in the final a year ago.
Lions coach Johan Ackermann has been at pains to explain that he has tried to keep everything in the buildup to the semifinals and the final as routine as possible but that has its limitations when your team has to travel for more than 24 hours.
It is almost equally difficult to insulate his players from the sense of occasion that comes with the buildup to a final.
The balance of power has distinctly weighed New Zealand's way in this year’s competition but as a shining light in a sea of mediocrity, the Lions appear up for the challenge.
They look better-equipped than any other South African team to win a playoff match in the Antipodes. After all, they have a playing style that increasingly is being likened to that of the Kiwis and they would have travelled here, sans the fear of failure.
The Hurricanes did, however , show at Ellis Park earlier this season that they have the game to dismantle the Lions. “You can't just ignore that because it is the reality,” Lions assistant coach Swys de Bruin said.
“They outrucked us then,” De Bruin recalled the Lions 50-17 defeat – their worst performance this season.
Their inability to assert themselves at the breakdown, or put another way, deploy sufficient personnel cost them dearly against the most ruthless counter-attackers in the competition.
That margin of victory and the fact that it occurred at Ellis Park makes the Hurricanes favourites.
“At this stage whoever wears the underdogs' tag is not important. What is important is what happens between the four white lines.
“If you are a betting man then they are favourites but we like it when it is like that, I must say,” De Bruin said ominously.