Chiefs ready to face the heat
Chiefs coach Colin Cooper is playing down the heat factor his team are set to face in their final Super Rugby pre-season match, against the Reds in Brisbane tonight.
Temperatures in the Queensland capital are set to peak at near 30 degrees, and while the match has a 7.15pm local time kickoff, the mercury is still slated to be around 25deg for the game at Ballymore.
That’s probably a similar temperature to what the Chiefs’ first pre-season hitout was played in – a 43-10 loss to the Blues in Kaikohe last Saturday – but on top of the travel factor, and only a week out from the competition proper, it could seemingly pose a point of anxiety around injuries, for a team who were hit hard in that department last year.
But Cooper was relaxed about the situation, saying there was ‘‘no issue’’ with what they faced.
‘‘Mate, it’s hot enough here,’’ he said. ‘‘Brisbane’s not much better than Hamilton.’’
Indeed, there have been some scorchers for the Chiefs to train in, and the local humidity can make it a more oppressive-type heat.
A game situation is something different, thought they aren’t unaccustomed to Queensland at this time of the year either, having for the last two years played pre-season games in Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast, in and around the Tens tournament.
This time, with the Tens now canned, it’s a one-off trip required for game time, as the other four New Zealand sides are tied up playing each other this weekend.
It’s a trip which could potentially help bond a squad early in the season, but also one that the coaching staff want to get a fair bit from on-field, ahead of their season opener against the Highlanders in Hamilton next Friday.
Despite running out quite an inexperienced group against the Blues, there were clearly things which Cooper saw needing immediate attention.
‘‘It was an opportunity for us to look at some players, and some players need some work-ons, and some players went well,’’ he said, adding that the Blues had got stuck into them in the collision area, and that he wasn’t particularly impressed with the structures he saw amid some offseason tweaks in style.
‘‘No, there’s a lot of work to do there, particularly our strikes off our set piece, and then the maps that we talk about. It’s people not in the right position. But that’s what pre-season is all about.
‘‘We didn’t react very well last week, there were linebreaks and we were slow to react. The Chiefs’ way is we go till we die, basically. So there’s those little changes that the newer players have to find out.
‘‘It was a good message for us, I think it’s a win for us going forward.’’
With their All Blacks sitting out the trial games, new signing Jack Debreczeni will again start at first five-eighth, keeping the seat warm for Damian McKenzie.
As Tiaan Falcon has already been ruled out for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon, Cooper is looking to sign a replacement No 10, but admits there isn’t much about.
With Marty McKenzie still about three weeks away as he recovers from a hip operation, it gives Debreczeni another chance to stake his claims, with the Auckland-born 25-year-old coming off a Mitre 10 Cup season with Northland, after notching 53 games for the Melbourne Rebels since 2014.
‘‘It’s the old-time coach in me looking for experience,’’ Cooper said of Debreczeni’s attributes.
‘‘He’s settling in really well, but he’s a new player, got to learn our structures, got to learn people inside and outside.’’
Debreczeni could also be an option at fullback, with Solomon Alaimalo – a star last year – out with a small wrist fracture.