Hurricanes blow Chiefs away in windy Welly to win Super Rugby Pacific title

The Hurricanes are Super Rugby champions for a second time, after storming to a 60-5 win over the Chiefs in the final in Wellington.

The 55-point victory, in front of a soldout crowd, was the biggest-ever winning margin in a Super Rugby final, surpassing the South African Bulls' 61-17 win over the Chiefs in the 2009 title decider in Pretoria.

The Chiefs have now lost four straight finals.

The Hurricanes were the first to score, after an error-ridden opening passage, where the strength of the Wellington wind was on display, with wing Josh Moorby diving over in the right corner to put the hosts into an early lead.

Moorby's 16th try of the season brought him level with fellow Hurricanes wing Fehi Fineanganofo at the top of the leading tryscorers list, with both seeking a 17th try for the all-time single-season record.

The Hurricanes extended their advantage a few minutes later, with first-five Ruben Love pouncing on a deflected grubber, before stepping the last Chiefs defender to score under the posts and make it 12-0 to the hosts after 15 minutes.

The Hurricanes kept testing the Chiefs defence out wide and, after a well-worked move down the left edge, the ball ended up in the hands of Fineanganofo with no-one in front of him and he dived over to score his 17th try of the season, breaking the record that he shared with the Moorby, former Brumbies star Joe Roff and former Hurricanes wing Ben Lam.

That was the Hurricanes' third try of the night and they would strike again near the end of the first half through fullback Callum Harkin and then kicked a penalty to take a 26-0 lead into halftime.

The Hurricanes picked up where they left of, with Moorby going over for his 17th try of the season, after another backline move put him in space on the right wing, drawing level with Fineanganofo and making it 36-0 to the Hurricanes.

By this point, the Hurricanes had most of the possession and were starting to run riot, with loose forward Devan Flanders the next to score, extending the host's lead to 41-0.

The top seeds continued to pile on the pressure and the Chiefs defence was soon breached again, with midfielder Jordie Barrett barging over from close range to dot down for the hosts' seventh try of the night, 48-0 to the Hurricanes with still plenty of time remaining.

The crowd was on its feet and already celebrating, when Love crossed for his second try of the game, an acrobatic effort in the right corner that pushed the Hurricanes lead out to 53-0.

The Chiefs scored next to post their first points of the game through lock Naitoa Ah Kuoi to cut the home side's lead to 53-5, but with only five minutes left, it was too little, too late for the visitors.

The Hurricanes put the icing on the cake with one more try to seal a 60-5 win and their first Super Rugby title since 2016.

Follow the live action here: