Rennie demands better
Must do better. Dave Rennie knows the Chiefs have to improve with the buoyant Blues heading to Hamilton.
Winning 24-15 in Dunedin on Friday snapped a six-match losing streak to the Highlanders, but Chiefs coach Rennie won’t have been whooping and cheering on the plane home.
The Highlanders dominated territory and enjoyed 59 per cent of the possession, but were guilty of beating themselves and presenting the Chiefs chances they didn’t pass up.
James Lowe accepted not one but two gifts with a bow on top, courtesy of All Blacks Aaron Smith and Waisake Naholo, who threw crazy passes for two intercept tries to give the Chiefs the upper-hand.
Hika Elliot’s well-worked set play try in the 46th minute stretched their advantage to 21-9 and left the Highlanders chasing a game they had controlled.
Rennie was pleased with how the Chiefs closed it out, but said their kicking game and tackling was substandard.
The stats never lie. The Chiefs made 137 tackles in Dunedin but they missed a whopping 37.
Their defence must turn up when the Blues visit FMG Stadium Waikato next Friday, especially after Rieko Ioane’s devastating hat-trick in Melbourne last Thursday as the Blues smashed the Rebels 56-18.
‘‘We need to be a lot better in other areas,’’ Rennie said after praising their scrum and lineout.
‘‘We need to hang on to the ball for longer and build some pressure and so on.’’
It was seventh time lucky for the Chiefs in meetings with the Highlanders, with Friday’s win their first in almost three years.
‘‘We got lucky early, didn’t we?’’ Rennie admitted. ’’James Lowe picked up a couple of plums, and I felt at half-time that we hadn’t actually played much footy.
‘‘We were able to build better in the second half. We got rewarded when we were down there and I think we controlled the game pretty well late [on].’’
The Chiefs left Dunedin with a bonus point victory but another big positive was returning home unscathed with four debutants - Mitch Karpik, Johnny Faauli, Samisoni Taukei’aho and Jonathan Taumateine - getting their first taste of Super Rugby.
Prop Nepo Laulala played 50 minutes on his long-awaited Chiefs debut and looked assured after recovering from the horror knee injury that kept him out of action in 2016.
The Chiefs can also be happy with how clinical they were, as they rode their luck and scored three tries from their only clear openings.
‘‘A lot these tight affairs are about taking opportunities. Lowe grabbed a couple early, when really they had all the territory and all the possession,’’ Rennie said.
‘‘They looked more likely to score. We will obviously take that sort of luck, and first time we got down their end in the second half, we scored from a special play and that put us a little bit clear.’’
The Blues come south on Friday night having lost 10 on the bounce to the Chiefs. The Aucklanders, who weren’t at full strength in thumping the Rebels, are expected to name a stronger starting XV for the Battle of the Bombays encounter after leaving Charlie Faumuina, George Moala and Rene Ranger on the bench.
The Chiefs will hope Sam Cane is fit again, while the Blues wait on James Parsons, Jerome Kaino and Patrick Tuipulotu.