Chiefs – resilient, brilliant
OPINION: Credit where it’s due, please. We have been so busy sticking the boot into the broken record of ineptitude that is the Blues, the Chiefs’ remarkable effort in week three of the new Super Rugby season has perhaps not received its due applause.
Colin Cooper’s patched-up, reshuffled and remarkably resilient Chiefs were the standout performers of the just completed round from a Kiwi perspective, even if the Crusaders continue to set the standards up at the top of the standings, and the Hurricanes hinted at better to come sooner rather than later after their surprise week-one stumble.
The latter two should not surprise anyone. The defending champs have simply taken up where they left off in 2017, and the Canes, with all that world-class talent, were never going to stay in any funks for too long.
But the Chiefs had no right winning that game at Eden Park on Friday night, even though it was against a Blues outfit they hadn’t lost to since 2011, and which has mastered the art of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. With all the defections and disruptions, and digging so deep into their player pool, Cooper’s troopers were so patched together they should have been sponsored by Band-Aid.
They were missing something in the region of 18 first-choice players, down four of their top props, their two excellent starting locks, their top No 6 and a good chunk of their backline firepower. But they weren’t missing their pluck, their competitive spirit and their commitment. Nor their ticker.
What is more, they were having to adjust on the fly, losing the inspirational Brodie Retallick late in the piece when his training ground eye injury never cleared, as expected, and then seeing Shaun Stevenson go down in the warmup which resulted in young first-five Tiaan Falcon being thrown in for his debut and Damian McKenzie shifted back to fullback.
You would hardly have known it. The Chiefs came out and got stuck into the contest, hung determinedly in a match that could have gotten away from them early, and then struck with a withering 17 points in the first 16 minutes of the second half to put themselves into a winning position.
From there they dug in ‘til the end and repelled a spirited Blues comeback with some dogged defence, and a little help from the shortcomings of the home side.
Yes, the bumbling Blues are a Groundhog Day of incompetence. Every year they swear, well black and blue, that this is going to be the season they launch their turnaround, and every flipping year they come up short of their own bold promises.
It is early days yet, and there is still time for Tana Umaga’s outfit to turn this thing around. But initial signs are not promising. It is the same shortcomings and the same lack of smarts, togetherness and gameplan that is holding this group back.
But enough of them. And more about the Chiefs.
That was a special display. On a talent scale they lacked the level of firepower the Blues had scattered through their lineup. But internationals Sam Cane, Damian McKenzie, Nathan Harris, Nepo Laulala and Anton Lienert-Brown took the lead roles, and inspired their less heralded team-mates.
Others played their part in an important victory for the Chiefs heading into the bye. Brad Weber was superb at halfback, making an early statement in the race for that No 3 spot on the national pecking order, Mitchell Brown was hard and physical and unrelenting as only he can be as a makeshift lock, and Solomon Alaimalo looked every bit a wing of international-level class.
And what about Sean Wainui? He wasn’t even picked in the original Chiefs squad of 38, but has come in, shaken off a head knock in week one, and played the house down as a starting right wing in the win over the Blues.
The Chiefs now get a muchneeded bye to regather and heal. But on the back of 80 special minutes at Eden Park they have already revealed one important quality that will take this group of Cooper’s a long, long way indeed.