Chiefs’ defence guru has eye on tryline too

The mastermind behind the Chiefs’ standout defence this season, Wayne Smith, says the team’s success is based on more than just shutting out other teams.

Smith puts it down to the Chiefs’ ability to tie together strong defence and strong attack better than any other team in Super Rugby.

‘‘I think the most pleasing thing is the connection between the attack and defence,’’ Smith said.

‘‘So if you look at the stats we’re fourth-best attacking team on the ladder and fourth-best defensive team on the ladder and there’s no other team close to that.’’

In terms of points conceded this season, the top defensive team were the Stormers but they were only the 12th-best attacking team in terms of points scored, while the best attacking team were the Hurricanes and they were only the 10th best defensive team.

‘‘We’ve always looked at the challenge as being able to develop both and often when you focus on one, the other drops off.

‘‘We’ve had that now and again this year where we’ve put extra focus on attack and the defence has dropped off or vice versa, but getting that growth in both units together is pretty important,’’ he said.

Smith agreed defence was always a huge factor at playoffs time and that was how the All Blacks coaches had approached the World Cup last year.

‘‘But you can’t do it to the cost of your attack and so making sure you’ve got a link between the two is critical. ‘‘Part of that is due to mindset. ‘‘You defend, defend and show you can absorb the pressure, but when your opportunity comes you’ve got to kill them on the back of that defence.

‘‘You’ve got to strike and score, and that’s what we’ve been able to do, so we’ve just got to keep developing that mindset.’’

Smith said the Chiefs needed to approach the remaining two weeks of the regular season as if they were already involved in playoffs.

‘‘The challenge is once you’ve reached one goal, which was being top of the New Zealand conference, can you get the edge to keep pushing on and be top in the whole competition, win a semifinal and get yourself in a final?

‘‘So there’s a hell of a lot to play for but you’ve got to show you’ve got the ability to push on and that’s what we’re trying to do.’’

Last Friday night’s win over the Highlanders had been a tough exercise for the Chiefs, given the lack of scrum ball from which to launch strike moves, due to the number of free kicks and penalties in that area.

‘‘I get frustrated with the number of free kicks, particularly when it’s a loosehead and there’ve been very few tightheads in the game anyway; you just want to see it played out.

‘‘But that’s not happening, so we had very little set-piece attack and we’ve just got to make sure we get it right and make sure we’re squeaky clean there, get the timing right, so we can attack off there.’’

One thing that was not a problem going into the big games at the business end of the season was the players’ attitude, thanks to the environment created from the outset of the season by the management group and the senior players.

‘‘It’s just as important as performance and we’ve created one where the guys can have fun, like each other’s company. Laughter’s good medicine for you when the pressure comes on and we get a lot of that, but also able to switch on when we get between the white lines.’’

It was important to recognise just how good the attitude among the Chiefs players was, fuelled by huge desire to win and play for each other.

Smith warned the Crusaders this Friday would be dangerous opponents after their narrow loss to the Hurricanes.

‘‘Traditionally they bounce back from shocks like that. I know even in my day there it was something we prided ourselves on; that we never lost two in a row and I think they’ll be roaring on Friday night.

‘‘Todd [Blackadder] has made comments that any team’s beatable and we’re beatable but we’re confident.

‘‘Their view is that they’ll have to bring more than us to the party.

‘‘We’ll have to make sure that they don’t, that we bring everything we’ve got because it’s a critical game for us. If we want to get to our ultimate goal, it’s important we win this match and for your own confidence moving forward these are the games you’ve got to win.

‘‘This is the part of the season that counts. I know as an All Blacks selector over the last eight years this was the time we started looking because these are the moments when the big players step up and that’s what we were looking for.’’