‘We are not ready for the playoffs’

They remain on track for a home quarterfinal, but Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan says his side isn’t good enough to even be worrying about the playoffs at all.

While reserve prop Ollie Norris scored an 80th minute wonder try, the overwhelming feeling in the Chiefs’ ranks was that they merely got away with one in their 33-30 Super Rugby Pacific win over the Rebels in Melbourne on Sunday.

‘‘Even after we scored it wasn’t real celebratory, because it was a bit of a get out of jail free card we played,’’ co-captain Brad Weber admitted.

McMillan agreed ‘‘100%’’ with that notion, demanding his side replicate the kind of work it produced in the dying stages at AAMI Park if it is to be anything like genuine title contenders.

‘‘I look at the last two or three minutes and the speed, accuracy and urgency with which we played to get the try that ultimately sealed the match, we’ve got to do that for longer,’’ he said.

‘‘At the moment I’d challenge our boys that they’re in and out of games too often.’’

Coming on the back of being well outplayed at home by the Brumbies, McMillan said his side had made improvements in the areas it had put a big focus on, but regressed in others.

His main concern is a lack of continuity in their game, though perhaps that shouldn’t come as such a surprise considering a mix and match selection strategy (key performers Tupou Vaa’i, Cortez Ratima, Bryn Gatland, Alex Nankivell and Jonah Lowe were rested against the Rebels) as McMillan tries to balance playing loads heading into the back-end of the season.

‘‘We’ve got a talented team, but we’re sort of struggling for a little bit of flow, and that’s allowing a bit of frustration to creep in, and when frustration creeps in you get errors,’’ he said of a game where the Chiefs beat 36 defenders to 12 but conceded 12 turnovers to five – the fourth game in a row they’ve been on the wrong end of that stat.

It was sort of summed up in the performance of first five-eighth Josh Ioane, who made a return after five games out with a rib injury. In the end he was critical to the Chiefs’ fortunes – racking up game-high numbers for carries (13), metres (102), defenders beaten (six) and clean breaks (two), though was also guilty of throwing two passes which the Rebels pounced on for tries, as well as missing touch from a penalty.

‘‘He’d be the first to admit that it was far from a polished performance,’’ McMillan said of the 26-year-old one-test All Black.

‘‘But we know what he’s capable of, and he showed that at times today. We’ve just got to back him, it’s hard to come back at Super Rugby level off the back of six weeks without playing.’’

With all said and done in their late escape, the Chiefs remain in fourth place on the ladder, still seven points behind the Crusaders, though now have a three-point advantage over the Hurricanes and Waratahs, and know wins over the 10th-placed Force (in Hamilton on Saturday) and 11thplaced Fijian Drua (in Lautoka next Saturday) will secure them quarterfinal hosting rights.

But McMillan is trying to steer their eyes off that prize.

‘‘Really, we’re not good enough at the moment to be worrying about finals rugby,’’ he said.

‘‘We just need to worry about the Force, because they’re exactly what I’m talking about – a team that has pushed some of the top teams to the absolute 80th minute, and irrespective of what the scoreline looked like against the Highlanders [61-10 in Dunedin on Friday night], if we don’t respect them and get genuine prep in then we’re going to get our pants pulled down.’’