Resurgent Chiefs: We still need to be better

At a glance

The resurgent Chiefs will enter their bye week in buoyant mood, but insist they still need big improvements if they are to be a genuine challenger in Super Rugby Aotearoa.

Having a week ago got the monkey off the back to snap a record-equalling 11-game losing streak with a big comeback against the Hurricanes, it looked as though the Chiefs’ winning streak would end at one, before they pulled a rabbit out of the hat to upset the Blues 15-12 in Hamilton on Saturday night.

A turnover win then charge upfield from Luke Jacobson resulted in Damian McKenzie spinning over for the matchwinning try in the final minute to send the fans at FMG Stadium Waikato into hysterics, as the Chiefs, some 413 days, and seven losses, since their last home triumph, avoided a new Kiwi record for successive defeats as hosts.

Crucially, it’s a result which also keeps their hopes very much alive at the halfway point of the competition.

While the 4-0 Crusaders sit on 18 points and already look odds-on to book themselves home advantage for the May 8 final, the fight for the other berth is well and truly on, with the Blues (10) holding just a two-point buffer over the Chiefs (8), and the Hurricanes and Highlanders (both 5) still each in the mix, too.

But, for all his delight at their change in fortunes over the past fortnight – just ask the window in the coaches box as McKenzie scored on Saturday night – Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan is also acutely aware there is ‘‘a long way to go’’.

‘‘We’ve got a couple of wins, and that’s nice, but if we want to be in it at the business end of the season we still need to be better, and we need to be consistent,’’ he said.

‘‘Our first four games have been anything but consistent, but we’ve got a couple of results now, and we have a bye to look forward to to freshen up, and we’ve got to use that wisely and come back and try and hit the Highlanders hard on our return.’’

That clash, in Dunedin on April

10, will be the first of another four derbies in four weekends for the Chiefs, and five in five if they are to make the decider. Already with

10 players in their casualty ward, the bye has probably come at a decent time for them, despite their newfound momentum.

‘‘We’ll look forward to this week off, because the bodies will need it,’’ co-captain Brad Weber said after another doozy in this ever-bruising mate-on-mate competition.

On return, the team will be confident of what they could do over the run home.

Saturday night’s fixture was the Chiefs’ 350th Super Rugby match, and only four times previously had they scored fewer points to win a game.

There were plenty more chances they didn’t convert, but a hugely-improved scrum, and stout maul defence against an imposing Blues pack, meant they didn’t have to.

‘‘We’ve blooded a lot of young fellas, particularly in the forward pack, and they’re starting to find their feet at Super Rugby level,’’ Weber said.

‘‘Some of those guys are going to be fantastic rugby players for many years, and it’s a coming of age for a few of them.

‘‘I think we’ve shown the last two weeks that we’ve got a bit of ticker.

‘‘We’ve been building pretty nicely, we’ve just trusted the process regardless of what the results were, and we’re finally starting to get on the right side there.

‘‘So belief’s huge in the group.’’