Dance of the desperates in the Capital
It’s been almost three years since Aidan Ross last set foot on Wellington’s Sky Stadium, and the memories aren’t nice.
On that fateful Friday the 13th of April, 2018, the Chiefs prop left the ground early on a stretcher, sucking gas, after suffering an horrific broken ankle during the 25-13 defeat to the Hurricanes.
It was the first major injury of Ross’ career, and came in friendly fire fashion after team-mate Angus Ta’avao fell on top of him.
Since then, neck and calf niggles prevented him from playing Chiefs fixtures in the capital the last two seasons, while he even missed Bay of Plenty’s Mitre 10 Cup game there last year, having needed knee surgery after round one.
But finally, Ross is set to be reacquainted with the stadium once more, having been named to start alongside Ta’avao for tonight’s Super Rugby Aotearoa clash, in a planetaligning situation the Chiefs must hope is some sort of good omen for them in their quest to put an end to their 11-game losing run.
However, to avoid that record dirty dozen defeats, Ross knows the Chiefs pack have to take a huge step up after what he labelled an ‘‘embarrassing’’ performance against the Crusaders in the 39-17 defeat last weekend.
After missing the opening game against the Highlanders with a knee problem, Ross was injected from the bench early in the second half in Christchurch, but it was a far from enjoyable return as the visitors’ big men got manhandled.
Set pieces turned into a disaster for the Chiefs, losing two of their four scrum feeds and four of their seven lineouts, as the hosts went a perfect 9-0 and 17-0 respectively, while a 15-9 penalty count loss was heavily attributed to the scrum capitulation. ‘‘It was pretty embarrassing and disappointing what happened last week,’’ Ross said. ‘‘We know we don’t want to feel that hurt again.’’
The Chiefs are hardly the first team to fold under the red-hot heat of the Crusaders’ pack, but even so, there’s front-rowers’ dignity to be had here, and any worth their salt will know the painful feeling of Ross’ next five words. ‘‘It’s never nice going backwards,’’ he said.
‘‘There’s a couple of areas in the game where it hits your pride, I think, and going backwards at scrum time’s one of them.
‘‘We know where we want wrong last week, and we’ve done a bloody good job of working hard to rectify that this week. Every time we come to scrum time, it’s on.’’
A back injury to Sione Mafileo and the resting of Reuben O’Neill due to a big pre-season and big injury history, means the Chiefs will have young Ollie Norris and debutant Joe Apikotoa on the bench, placing even more responsibility on 25-year-old Ross, who will face off against All Black Tyrel Lomax.
‘‘Getting a crack at the No 1 spot this week’s pretty exciting, and something I don’t take lightly,’’ he said. ‘‘You just don’t know when your last game of footy is.’’
The Chiefs are winless in their last six games against the Hurricanes, and haven’t tasted victory in Wellington since 2017, and then of course is that streak.
Last weekend’s 11th successive defeat created a new record losing run in New Zealand derbies (the Blues had a draw in a 20-game winless stretch in 2016-17), and means the Chiefs are now one defeat away from a new overall losing streak for a Kiwi side, too.
But Ross said rather than any negativity fuelling the team’s motivation, they were focusing on how sweet success will be when it does eventually come. ‘‘If we get the job done, then how nice will it feel.’’