JOHANNESBURG - Wellington Hurricanes put a string of Super 15 opening-match losses behind them Friday with a 22-8 victory over Golden Lions in Johannesburg.
Wellington Hurricanes flags are waved during their Super 15 rugby union match against the Central Cheetahs in Wellington on March 15, 2014
The New Zealanders, who entered the season opener on the back of four consecutive first-round defeats, led 11-8 at half-time and outscored the South Africans by two tries to one.
Lions had far more possession than Hurricanes and spent long periods camped inside their opponents' half, especially during the opening 40 minutes.
But poor goal-kicking by normally deadly fly-half Marnitz Boshoff, unforced errors and a lack of composure cost the home side dearly at hot and humid Ellis Park.
Renowned for a ball-in-hand approach, a Hurricanes team led by All Blacks centre Conrad Smith showed they can also defend, repulsing wave after wave of attacks in the first half.
And the visitors gave the Lions a lesson in clinical finishing, scoring almost every time they established an attacking foothold.
There was little to choose between the packs with the New Zealanders having the slightest of edges at the line-outs and the scrums.
Scrum-half TJ Perenara and replacement left-wing Matt Proctor crossed the try-line for the Hurricanes and fly-half Beauden Barrett succeeded with all four penalty attempts.
Right-wing Ruan Combrinck scored a try for the Lions, which gave them a brief first-half lead, and Boshoff kicked a late first-half penalty afer fluffing three other shots at goal.
"We have learnt from seasons past," said Smith as he celebrated a winning start for a team that missed the 2014 play-offs by one point.
"Perhaps we tried to play too much in previous seasons. We were more conservative against the Lions and it worked.
"Playing without much possession is not a habit we want to get into, though. However, we defended really well tonight."
Lions skipper and No.8 Warren Whiteley said failure to convert pressure into points cost his team dearly as they seek to improve on 12th place last season.
"This result is so disappointing for us as we had lots of scoring opportunities but could not finish off good approach work.
"We will be criticised for kicking to touch sometimes instead of going for the posts, but we believed we could use line-outs to score push-over tries."
Barrett kicked penalties either side of the Combrinck try before the strength of full-back Jason Woodward set up Perenara to dart over.
A Boshoff penalty closed the first-half scoring.
Another two Barrett penalties widened Hurricanes' lead to 17-8 before Proctor dived over in the corner for a stoppage-time try after being set up by a skip pass.