Waratahs breeze by Hurricanes

The Waratahs have secured a Super 14 semi-final place after closing out an unbeaten home season by beating the Hurricanes 32-16.

Kurtley Beale and Drew Mitchell both grabbed two tries with Berrick Barnes' boot ably backing them up as he slotted home five out of six attempts.

Replacement back David Smith scored the visitors' only try in the closing stages but by then the Hurricanes had already blown their own chance to progress into the last four.

The New South Wales outfit climb to second place in the table with the victory but have to wait for the outcome of Saturday's contest between the Bulls and Stormers to find out whether they have secured home advantage.

If the Stormers manage to defeat the league-leading Bulls then the Waratahs will face a trip to Cape Town in the semi-finals.

The home side dominated the early stages but fell behind against the run of play as Piri Weepu's second penalty moved the Hurricanes 6-3 ahead on 14 minutes.

Advantage

But the advantage was snatched away from them almost immediately as Beale celebrated his 50th appearance in Super rugby with a try.

Rob Horne made the original break before the ball was worked to Beale, who kicked ahead and won the race to touch down beneath the posts.

The pressure showed no sign of abating but a second penalty from Barnes was all the home side had to show for their dominance after 30 minutes.

Hurricanes' captain Andrew Hore was forced out of the action with an elbow injury and the hosts capitalised when Mitchell crossed for their second try.

Lachie Turner was the creator as he kicked from deep inside his own half before gathering himself and racing downfield before picking out his fellow wing, who duly finished the move off.

Weepu then managed to cut the lead to nine points just before the half-time break with his third penalty.

But any hopes of a comeback were firmly killed off after the restart as Mitchell and Beale both scored again to stretch the advantage to 23 points with a little over 50 minutes gone.

The Hurricanes tried in vain to rescue their season but the Waratahs defence held firm until Smith crossed the try-line for a late consolation effort.