Julian Savea's toying with the Crusaders defence in the final minutes of the Hurricanes 74-7 Super Rugby preseason win on Friday said it all.

The giant Hurricanes left-winger strolled over the try line at Lansdowne Park in Blenheim, than waited for right-winger Corey Jane to arrive for a pop pass and their 11th try of the day. Then the Hurricanes added another on the stroke of fulltime, just for good measure.

The final pre-season match for both teams went the Hurricanes way from the start as their star-studded backline cut a swathe through the Crusaders, five first-half tries being followed by seven in the second 40. Ten Hurricanes players dotted down, with Victor Vito and Jane scoring doubles.

Around 5000 spectators turned up to the home of Marlborough rugby for their first opportunity to see a Super match since the Crusaders narrowly beat the Waratahs at the venue in 2002, also a pre-season match. On this occasion there was no Crusaders win though, their supporters leaving disheartened, but having seen a scintillating display of running rugby from the North Islanders.

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They quickly snuffed out any chance of a Crusaders victory, the Hurricanes stars instead igniting a try-fest. Loose forwards Vito and Ardie Savea were quick and strong while fullback Nehe Milner-Skudder showed he has lost nothing over the off-season , setting up two first-half tries with his pace and step.

The Crusaders on the other hand were missing All Blacks, Kieran Read, Israel Dagg, Ryan Crotty and Luke Romano and it showed. Richie Mo'unga got the start at first five-eighth, but saw his backline routinely penetrated, while the pack in front of him struggled to gain parity. A complete change of Crusaders front row had some impact at scrum time in the second half. Owen Franks, Ben Funnell and Wyatt Crockett dominated several set pieces, but it made no difference as further out the Hurricanes half-back and first five-eighth combination of TJ Perenara and Beauden Barrett set loose a destructive back-line.

The Crusaders will have a week to lick their wounds before they enter their season opener with the Chiefs on Saturday, February 27. The Hurricanes, on the other hand, will be pleased they turned around two preseason losses to dominate their last warm-up hit out before heading to Canberra to start the season proper on Friday against the Brumbies.

Crusaders' coach Todd Blackadder was, as usual, gracious and honest, despite the hefty margin of defeat.

"We just got outplayed today. I never saw that coming … we had a good week's preparation, we were up for the challenge. I don't think I have ever seen us play so poorly. There wasn't any facets of the game where we were really good today. We got shown a master class in rugby by the Hurricanes. We've just got to take it on the chin."

With the Chiefs next up, the Crusaders can't afford another sloppy performance, and Blackadder believes they will improve. "I've got real belief in this team. We are a better team than what we showed here … we have to use this to really galvanise us, have to play tough and a lot harder than we did today."

His opposite, Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd, while happy that his side had broken their preseason losing streak in style, wasn't reading too much into the result.

"Preseason is a funny thing. I know how the Crusaders are feeling. We felt the same last week after we got a towelling from the Blues.

We were pretty desperate, we had lost our first two preseason games and we needed to prove a little bit to ourselves and get some momentum going – and we did that.

"We got the basics right today. We laid a really good foundation and let the game flow. We never got that foundation last week. It was pleasing."

Another aspect of the match that put a smile on Boyd's face was a lack of serious injuries from Friday's match after his side suffered seven "dings" in the previous match.

Hurricanes 74 (TJ Perenara, Ardie Savea, Cory Jane 2, Beauden Barrett, Victor Vito 2, Ngani Laumape, Julian Savea, Willis Halaholo, Blade Thompson and Jason Woodward tries, Barrett 4 con, Woodward 3 con) Crusaders 7 (Johnny McNicholl try, Richie Mo'unga con). HT 27-7.