New prop reveals secret to Chiefs’ big scrum turnaround

New Chiefs prop Sione Mafileo has lifted the lid on the secret to the team’s stunning scrummaging transformation, saying some of the players had been trying to do too much of their own thing rather than working as a pack.

In mirroring the side’s remarkable change in fortunes with now a place in next weekend’s Super Rugby Aotearoa final secure thanks to five wins on the bounce, it was the team’s last defeat where the scrum hit rock bottom.

That night in Christchurch, in the 39-17 round-three defeat to the Crusaders, proved the catalyst, coach Clayton McMillan has said, for sorting out a scrum he described as getting ‘‘destroyed’’ and was ‘‘embarrassing’’.

The fix was ultra quick, seemingly a switch flicked against the Hurricanes in Wellington the following weekend and the big men won a couple of crucial set-piece moments. Even more remarkable was to come the following weekend against the Blues in Hamilton, when a rather unheralded home bunch did a real number on the muchfancied visiting big boys.

And so it has continued on this winning streak, right down to the final moments of last weekend’s win over the Hurricanes, when the Chiefs won their ultimately matchwinning penalty.

The man who was at the centre of that penalty win – on the Chiefs’ tighthead side against Canes loosehead Pouri Rakete-Stones – was Mafileo, and he told Stuff this week just how they’d managed to pick up the pieces from that fateful night in the Garden City.

‘‘That week after, we just felt like we were better than that,’’ the 128kg, 28-year-old said, going on to praise the work of a scrum coach who is just four weeks post a second hip replacement.

‘‘Nick White has been outstanding in pushing us and giving us a few drills.

‘‘I think it’s just working with individuals, on what they need to work on . . . having someone there with you and go through it individually throughout the week early in the morning ... he’s real good at bringing us together and trying to work on our own game before we get into the main training.

‘‘And I think the boys have been gelling pretty well.’’

That gelling is not something to be underestimated, it seems, as Mafileo – one of the standout props in last year’s NPC with a dominant North Harbour eight – feels the Chiefs forwards are now actually all on the same page as one another, having been guilty of scrummaging as individuals too much in those opening two games.

‘‘Maybe we weren’t engaged as much,’’ he said. ‘‘A couple of us were doing our own little thing. But I think it was more just gelling in, it was only our second game in, we just needed more game time with each other to have a feel what could be. More than anything, it’s just everybody’s buying into what we want to do, and what we want to achieve in the scrum.

‘‘Obviously it’s not just the guys at the front. We look good there, but the back five, they are the ones that we rely on to get us through.’’

While he and his team-mates sported bruised egos from ‘that’ night in Christchurch, Mafileo was also left with bone bruising on his back, which saw him require an injection and miss the next three games, returning by way of club footy for North Shore.

‘‘It’s always a niggly thing for front rowers, the lower back, but I’m happy I got it sorted real early and I’m feeling good now,’’ he said, following two 10-minute stints off the bench the past two weeks.

Now, tonight, Mafileo will get his first start since the season-opener against the Highlanders, when he gets to pack down against his former side, the Blues, at Eden Park.

After six seasons with the Auckland team, an opportunity presented itself for Mafileo to move south, in what was a virtual swap with All Black Nepo Laulala, and he signed a two-year deal at a Chiefs club where his younger brother, Tevita, had played as an injury replacement in 2019.

Having been sidelined when the teams met in Hamilton last month, it’s a clash Mafileo is licking his lips for, getting to pack down against great Harbour mate ‘‘big Karl’’ [Tu’inukuafe], who he rates as ‘‘one of the best scrummagers in the world’’.

‘‘He’s the enemy on Saturday.’’