Up and down Chiefs just see off challenge of 14-man Force
The Chiefs got the bonus-point victory they were looking for but a 14-man Force team emerged with a meritorious bonus point from the 35-27 result at Waikato Stadium on Friday night.
The result puts the Chiefs back in front of the Super Rugby New Zealand Conference which pleased the good 13,948 crowd, who had come early for the special Anzac service before kickoff.
The match became virtually mission impossible for the Force 28 minutes into the first half when halfback Ian Prior was red-carded for a dangerous spear tackle on Chiefs winger Williams.
At that point the Chiefs had already built a 16-8 lead and while it took until just before the break for the home side to score again with a driving maul try to hooker Hika Elliot for a 23-8 halftime lead
Tim
Nanai- it was the numbers disadvantage that was wearing the Force down.
However, it was the Force who outscored the sloppy Chiefs 19-11 in the second half.
Prior, who came into the game as a replacement for the injured Alby Mathewson, only had himself to blame, upending NanaiWilliams when the latter had already spilt the ball.
Earlier, it was in fact the Force who scored the first five-pointer of the match when the visitors wore down the normally rock solid Chiefs defence for flanker Angus Cottrell to score after nine phases.
That broke a 3-3 deadlock, but goal-kicking second five-eighth Luke Burton missed the conversion and Chiefs starting debutant Marty McKenzie kicked his team back into the lead with a 17th minute penalty goal from 43 metres out.
Less than two minutes later and McKenzie was converting a spectacular try to the Chiefs’ centre, Charlie Ngatai to make the score 13-8.
It came from a sweeping movement as the home team typically counter-attacked from deep in their own half, left winger Nanai-Williams making the initial break and standout lock Brodie Retallick, halfback Brad Weber and then Ngatai all in support for the latter to streak away with a 30m run to score between the posts.
McKenzie’s regulation conver- sion and another 43m penalty goal took the lead out to 16-8 before Elliot’s exclamation mark to end the first half.
Five minutes into the second spell the Force conceded a penalty try through their seven-man scrum. McKenzie’s conversion stretched the lead to 30-8.
But it was the undermanned Force that scored the next two tries as they closed to 30-22..
The Chiefs backs decided to take matters into their own hands, Sonny Bill Williams charging over the gain line and then wider out Nanai-Williams produced some real individual magic to weave through and break tackles for a solo try out left to make it 35-22.