PREVIEW-Rugby-Hot Hurricanes take on surging Chiefs for Super Rugby crown

The Wellington Hurricanes will face the Waikato Chiefs in the Super Rugby Pacific final, with both teams boasting high-octane offences and a sold-out crowd of 35,000 expected.

The Wellington Hurricanes have set the standard ‌in ​Super Rugby Pacific all season but to clinch the title on Saturday they will need to beat a Waikato Chiefs side who played some sensational rugby to reach the final last week.

The competition has no shortage of critics but ‌tickets for the blockbuster clash between the best two teams of the year sold out in minutes to ensure a 35,000 crowd at the Wellington arena known as the "Cake Tin". The Hurricanes boast a red-hot attack that has racked up 50 or more points in seven of their 16 games this season, including their playoff wins ‌over the ACT Brumbies and Auckland Blues in the last two weeks.

The Chiefs, though, showed they too know a bit about high-octane offence when they blitzed ‌the reigning champion Canterbury Crusaders with six first-half tries in a dominant semi-final victory last weekend. "Their physicality and their speed of ball and lots of stuff in their game was really good," Hurricanes assistant coach Jamie Mackintosh said this week.

"(It'll be) two good teams going at it. It's going to be a wonderful game, and it's going to ebb and flow in different ways, and ⁠I guess ​which team deals with the pressure the ⁠best is going to come out on top." Dealing with the pressure of playing in the title decider would have to be a question mark over the Chiefs, who have lost the last three ⁠Super Rugby finals.

Coach Jono Gibbes was able to name a reasonably settled line-up studded with All Blacks for the match, although test loose forward Wallace Sititi was still unavailable after ​taking a nasty blow to the head in the first round of the playoffs. Quinn Tupaea, named this week as Super Rugby Pacific Player of ⁠the Year, will have a new partner in the centres with Kyle Brown replacing injured Wallaby Lalakai Foketi.

"The Hurricanes have been the pace setters throughout the season and it will be a terrific ⁠challenge ​playing them at their home, but it is one we are looking forward to," said Gibbes, who is hoping to lead the Chiefs to their first title since 2013. The Hurricanes, who will be playing in their first final since they won their sole Super Rugby title in 2016, named an unchanged backline but ⁠coach Clark Laidlaw made two tweaks to his pack.

Isaia Walker-Leawere comes into the second row to partner Warner Deans in place of Caleb Delany, who suffered ⁠a head knock last week, while Devan ⁠Flanders returns on the blindside flank after his own concussion. "A home final in front of a sold-out stadium, it doesn't get much better than that," said Laidlaw.

"We've got no question about what's coming from the Chiefs and how good ‌they are. We know it's ‌going to be a tough battle, but it's something we're really excited about." (Reporting ​by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)