Chiefs bank record win, set sights on capital classic
Super Rugby Pacific’s bland bye season is about to suddenly get spicy, with the most mouthwatering of matchups to be dished up this weekend.
And, with a franchise-record win rammed into the history books, the Chiefs will head into the capital classic with confidence fully restored, as they seek to be the first team to inflict defeat on the high-flying Hurricanes.
Bouncing back from their surprise loss to the Crusaders by beating Moana Pasifika in Hamilton on Saturday night was one thing, but doing it by way of a 68-12 scoreline was another, as coach Clayton McMillan finally got to see the complete performance he had been craving.
Last year’s runners-up gave a decent reminder why they remain favourites to go one better this season, showing off the depth in their ranks in a game where they sat out captain Luke Jacobson and Shaun Stevenson on All Blacks rest, had fellow international Josh Lord unavailable through injury, and didn’t even select another in Quinn Tupaea.
And they did not miss a beat. In fact, they raised the tempo plenty. Helped by a rather charitable inexperienced Moana side who were full of mistakes, the hosts put the foot down to not only mark their biggest-ever win, but also score 10 tries in a game for the first time (seven times they had managed nine) and notch their second-highest-ever score (behind only their crazy 72-65 win over the Lions in Johannesburg in 2010).
“Good,” was the rather understated way McMillan initially summed it all up soon after fulltime at Waikato Stadium, acknowledging he had no idea of the franchise records broken.
“It’s nice, but I don’t think we make a big deal out of it. We made quite a few changes today, they [Moana Pasifika] certainly were missing a lot of their frontline players. So as much as we loved the win, we’ve got to put it all in perspective.”
Instead, the coach noted this was more just a “stepping stone to where we want to get to”, and was more impressed with the way his troops did not let up in the way they had previously this season, after yet another fast start and a commanding 28-0 halftime lead.
“Teams that do well learn from past experiences, good and bad. And our performances largely this year have been moments of brilliance matched with some pretty ordinary stuff. So this was a game that could have gone pear-shaped if we had just got loose, ill-disciplined, and allowed them to come back into the game, which we didn’t do. So that’s a big growth.”
But the showdown at Wellington’s Sky Stadium on Saturday night will tell us plenty more about both the Chiefs and the Hurricanes, who have been something of a surprise package as the competition’s only unbeaten team, in Clark Laidlaw’s first season in charge.
It’s also a contest that can’t come soon enough for a competition which risks losing all sorts of momentum in the middle of the regular season by opting to give four teams byes each week through rounds seven to nine.
Having just had their week off, the Hurricanes are officially no longer ladder leaders thanks to the Blues (who have played an extra game) overtaking them on points differential after their 50-3 thumping of the Force at Eden Park on Friday night. The Brumbies also secured a bonus point in their 40-16 triumph over the Waratahs in Canberra on Saturday night to make it three teams on 27 points.
The Chiefs lurk in fourth, on 23, four clear of the Rebels, who continue to fight hard in this potential final season of theirs, after a 41-20 bonus-point win over the Fijian Drua in Melbourne on Friday night.
Much interest will centre on how the Canes cope without injured All Blacks halfback
Cam Roigard, but McMillan said their success to date had been no surprise to his side, with a squad which had been together for a number of seasons and some young players coming to the fore, playing an exciting brand of rugby and looking wellcoached.
Noting his troops could empty the tank with a bye the following week, McMillan also said there was “a bit of a selection headache” coming, with the Chiefs having a mostly full deck to choose from, albeit with Lord (ankle) still sidelined.
Midfield will be one such area, with one of Tupaea, Anton Lienert-Brown, Saturday’s stand-in skipper Rameka Poihipi and the ever-impressive Daneil Rona likely fighting for three spots in the 23, while young loose forward Wallace Sititi, after a barnstorming first start at No 8, has surely secured himself some action, and even presents a case for a starting back-row reshuffle.