Chiefs can’t wait for ‘big brother’

A candid Anton Lienert-Brown has a message for Chiefs fans who spent last Saturday evening grumbling at their TV during the loss to the Highlanders: We know we weren’t good enough.

The Chiefs face a red-hot Blues at FMG Stadium Waikato on Saturday, and if they want to get their Super Rugby Aotearoa campaign up and running they’ll have to raise their accuracy levels significantly from the 28-27 defeat in Dunedin.

‘‘It was a feeling of frustration,’’ LienertBrown told Stuff yesterday. ‘‘We were our own worst enemies.

‘‘We’re a much better side than that and to come away with a narrow loss in the end is really disappointing.’’

The Chiefs’ lineout malfunctioned as it struggled to cope with the loss of experienced campaigners such as Michael Allardice and Tyler Ardron, while a failure to launch off a scrum from a promising position in the second half summed up the Chiefs’ night.

That gave a chance to a resolute and muchimproved Highlanders side, and they were good enough to take it.

‘‘Bryn [Gatland] got that drop goal but at the end of the day when reviewing the game it probably shouldn’t have come down to that,’’ Lienert-Brown said.

‘‘If we executed better in moments it could have been a different story but it’s all done now, and we’ll take a lot of learnings from that.’’

The 2020 Blues will present a different type of threat to previous sides that have headed south from Auckland in recent years, with Tom Coventry’s influence over the pack evident, Rieko Ioane in sharp attacking form and a certain Beauden Barrett waiting to strike from the fullback position.

‘‘We love playing the Blues. It’s that little brother, big brother sort of feeling.’’ Anton Lienert-Brown, Chiefs midfield back

That will give Blues fans hopes they can consign their rivals to a 0-2 start to the competition but Lienert-Brown was having none of that.

‘‘We have full belief in ourselves and know the sort of rugby we can play,’’ he said.

‘‘We realise that what we delivered on Saturday was nowhere near our best, but we fully back ourselves to go out there this Saturday and play some of our best footy.

‘‘It’s that little brother, big brother sort of feeling and being the little brother you always want to get one up on them.

‘‘We love playing the Blues and we love winning over them.’’

If there was one shining light in the Chiefs’ performance in the Deep South, it was Damian McKenzie’s impressive game at fullback.

The All Black showed signs of his best form, which sets up a mouthwatering duel with Barrett on Saturday.

‘‘I thought he had a very classy performance, he did everything right,’’ Lienert-Brown said of his good mate.

‘‘He was strong over the ball and every time he touched it he created something.

‘‘That’s what we’re used to seeing with Damo.

‘‘He’s had a lengthy time off with injury but to see him come back just as good as he left is great to see.

‘‘He’s a real professional.

‘‘He worked really hard over lockdown and it’s no surprise that he’s come out and delivered a performance like that.’’