It’s back to basics for Chiefs
Chiefs coach Colin Cooper says there’s been ‘‘finger pointing and soul searching’’, along with a return to absolute basics, as his sides look to climb out of its Super Rugby slump.
While the only way is up for the franchise, that hardly looks like coming immediately as the Chiefs face the toughest possible fixture on Saturday in Christchurch against the two-time defending champion Crusaders, who are on a competition-record 18-game winning run.
The Chiefs are at 0-3 to start the year – the first time that’s happened since 2009 – but moreover it’s the nature of the defeats which has carried the most sting. First up they failed to close out their home game against the Highlanders, then in Canberra eight tries were leaked in a 54-17 loss to the Brumbies, before the clincher last weekend – going down 30-15 on home turf to the lowly Sunwolves.
‘‘So there’s been a bit of finger pointing, and soul searching,’’ Cooper said. ‘‘We’re in a hole, basically. We’re 0-3, and we don’t like it, it’s uncomfortable, it’s disappointing.
‘‘So we’ve got to look at how we can get out of that.
‘‘The players have taken on that responsibility along with the coaches.’’
Asked if it was possible to be able to get responses from players in just one week, Cooper said he had experiences from the past to draw on that he believed made it possible.
‘‘Yeah, I’ve been here a few times,’’ he said. ‘‘So it’s just about staying calm and staying with them and keeping them together and making sure we don’t have little splinters going on. People will poke at you and say ‘you’re not doing this and this well’, it’s just brushing that aside and really staying strong together.
‘‘Sam Cane, even though he’s not playing, he’s having a big influence on helping our mindset, and [it’s about] making sure together him and I and Brodie [Retallick] are keeping the group tight.’’
After seeing similar problems surface two weeks in a row – notably turnovers, with a whopping 24 conceded against the Sunwolves – Cooper said it was time to go back to coaching some basics, while also being conscious not to ‘‘clip the wings’’ of players going about ‘‘the Chiefs way’’ of attacking footy.
‘‘You can’t blame the defence when you can’t keep the ball,’’ he said of a team which leads the competition for tries conceded, with 14. ‘‘We spent a lot of time defending because we kept turning the ball over.
‘‘We know we can’t do that against the Crusaders, so we’ve just got to treasure the ball.’’