Chiefs’ inexplicable post-Covid collapse
So much is now going wrong for the winless Super Rugby side
The Chiefs are in more trouble than even their lowly and seemingly desperate position on the table suggests. They have collapsed post lockdown — become a team with few ideas, little attacking structure and almost zero conviction in what they are trying to do.
Their confidence is shot, something undeniable given their lack of accuracy and control against the Hurricanes — particularly in the final 30 minutes, when they had a man advantage and just didn’t know how to exploit it.
It’s unlikely they will deliver a more painfully inept half hour. It was, and this will become more apparent to the players and coaches as it sinks in, a travesty in tactical approach and execution.
The energy and commitment were all there — but absent was the polish and composure.
All that time with such a significant advantage and the Chiefs scored just two tries and mostly looked like the team under pressure.
That will sting, as it was 30 minutes of football that lacked patience and discipline. The Chiefs had all the possession and time, and fired blanks — as they have done since Super Rugby resumed.
It’s surprising they have fallen apart and not just because they were going along quite nicely before the lockdown.
The lack of attacking impact is hardest to understand. In Aaron Cruden and Damian McKenzie, they have two of the better playmakers in world rugby. Brad Weber is also someone who knows how to probe and snipe until a defence breaks open. But all three were short of control and imagination, as they have been for the first four rounds of Super Rugby Aotearoa.
The Chiefs went east to west no problem but spilled balls, ran into each other and looked unsure when they attacked north to south.
And they didn’t get anything of note from their bigger ball runners and that’s maybe most surprising.
There’s been a lack of organisation and urgency about the Chiefs in the past four weeks.
They have employed one-off runners easily smashed back behind the gainline. There has barely been a slip pass or an act of deception to force the defence into a rethink.
They look like the Blues of last year. Willing and eager but lacking the finer understanding of what is required to win at this level.
Their movement has been stilted and simple — lacking the sort of subtlety and variation needed to win games against New Zealand sides.
Their rugby has been dull, one dimensional and underwhelming.
Absolutely the Hurricanes produced a first-class defensive effort, as did the Blues the week before and the Highlanders in round one, but the Chiefs are making it easy for teams to shut them down.
Injury hasn’t helped them. They have lost more frontline talent than any other team and they have been forced to dig painfully deep at lock where they have been exposed.
That bad luck has hurt them, but it’s not solely responsible for why they are languishing as they are or playing as poorly as they have.
That alludes to there being some kind of disconnect, in application, attitude or understanding.
The lament from the coaching box ahead of the Hurricanes game was that the playmakers didn’t have the balance of options quite right in the first three rounds.
There was too much running and not enough kicking. That balance was not addressed in Hamilton and their attacking game was eclectic bordering on nonsensical at times.
They were enjoying early success in pulling Jordie Barrett out of position with some clever short kicks and then suddenly stopped.
When they had their man advantage, Quinn Tupaea summed up the confused thinking when he grubbered the ball a mere 20m into touch inside the Hurricanes 22 when everyone around him was crying out to keep the ball in hand.
Something has gone wrong at the Chiefs and effectively this campaign is now over for them. All they can do now is try to regroup and assess why it is they are so disjointed and clunky and that is going to require difficult questions to be asked and hard answers to be given.