Chiefs thwart brave Wolves

THE Chiefs have gone top of Super Rugby’s New Zealand conference – for a few hours, at least – but in highly unconvincing fashion, after struggling to put away a gutsy Sunwolves side 27-20 in Hamilton last night.

With the Crusaders due to play the Cheetahs in South Africa this morning there’s every chance the Chiefs’ stay at the top will be short-lived, and on the evidence of their latest outing, that would only be fair, after another patchy display,where they weren’t even able to nab a bonus point against the worst-ranked team in the competition.

Despite the Chiefs being able to produce just enough flashes of brilliance, with some quite superb tries, the 10,657 faithful on a wet night at FMG Stadium Waikato in the end had to keep glancing nervously at the scoreboard, as the Japanese franchise brought plenty of desire and never folded, as has usually been the case with them.

Even down to 13 on the final play of the match – with Derek Carpenter sin-binned for a deliberate knock down and JamieJerry Taulagi sent off for a shoulder charge to Shaun Stevenson’s head – the Sunwolves held on valiantly, to stop the Chiefs from attaining a bonus point.

It’s been the story with the Chiefs of late, having started the season with a hiss and a roar with three local derby wins, before struggling against overseas foe. This time they were on return from a tough three-week trek and Dave Rennie had looked to inject plenty of fresh legs, but instead the hosts were made to do it tough, in the slippery conditions, as the Sunwolves fought gallantly after being down 20-3 at halftime.

It was Damian McKenzie magic which in the end kept the Chiefs from wearing blushes – scoring two tries himself and playing a lovely hand in another. His 60th minute stunner was the key, as Aaron Cruden reeled in a fine take, before James Lowe popped a lovely a no-look ball for McKenzie to race in-field then march away.

Right from the outset it looked like the writing was going to be on the wall, as Sunwolves first fiveeighth Hayden Cripps skewed an awful clearance, with the resulting defensive bomb leading to Hika Elliot’s drive-over try.

But it was that man Cripps