Time on side of Chiefs
Tim Nanai-Williams opened the win against the Highlanders at Waikato Stadium on Saturday night with a stunning try. The Chiefs emerged victorious by 21-19. They are the only unbeaten New Zealand team going into their bye and coach Rennie says they will come right, Evan Pegden reports. Dave Rennie says it will all fall into place for the Chiefs soon and who can complain as the back-to-back champions lead Super Rugby’s New Zealand Conference going into this week’s bye.
The only unbeaten Kiwi side after two games, the Chiefs have a two-point lead over the Highlanders after beating the latter 21-19 in their first home game of 2014 at Waikato Stadium on Saturday night.
Now they have two weeks before their next match against the Stormers in Hamilton on Friday week, giving time for several more players to return from injuries.
Lock Brodie Retallick, prop Ben Afeaki, lock Ross Filipo and outside backs Tom Marshall and Gareth Making progress: Chiefs coach Dave Rennie knows there is still work to do. Anscombe are among those expected to be back and available for the Stormers match.
‘‘Come Stormers and I think we might only have two or three out and we had 11 out tonight,’’ Rennie said.
No new injuries were picked up with standout halfback Tawera Kerr-Barlow passing a sideline concussion test and able to return to the field. Kerr-Barlow’s defence was crucial and his sniping runs sparked a lot of the Chiefs’ go-forward.
The Chiefs get the first three days of the week off to freshen up after two tough conference derbies and then return to training on Thursday.
Head coach Dave Rennie said the comeback victory against the Highlanders had been ‘‘massive’’ for a team still not playing at their best.
‘‘What you’ve seen over the first couple of weeks from an Australian and New Zealand point of view is that anyone is beatable and you can’t take anyone for granted,’’ Rennie said.
‘‘I think reputations count for bugger all and certainly we’ve seen that in the results.
‘‘I know the Highlanders would have come here with a lot of confidence and would have backed themselves to roll us tonight but fortunately we were able to get things together and found a lot of space up the middle of the rucks, got in behind them and that sort of generated a bit of go-forward ball for us,’’ he said.
Rennie was happy to go into the bye as the only unbeaten New Zealand Conference side but far from happy with the discipline of his team, saying it was a good thing there were no microphones in the coaches’ box.
‘‘Far too many penalties, far too much time without possession, when we got our hands on it we ran over the sideline three times I think in the first half so we just struggled to get going and obviously we were a fair bit behind on the scoreboard [16-7] at the break,’’ he said.
Rennie blasted his players for their lack of discipline, calling some of the penalties the result of a lack of intelligence.
‘‘We had guys who had to get out and were staying there on their knees, so too slow rolling away, we had some simple stuff like being in front of the ball [when it was kicked], playing guys at the lineout when they’re in the air – so a host of lack of discipline really and it hurt us.’’
That was addressed at halftime, as was the defence where assistant coach Wayne Smith demanded his players increase their line speed and do a better job of spoiling the quality of the Highlanders’ ball, while the placement of kicks behind the defence also needed to be improved.
It certainly seemed to work and the lift in intensity and aggression was just what was needed to shake the Highlanders’ grip on the game.
‘‘I think we got more than 31 per cent possession so that was a step in the right direction,’’ Rennie said.
‘‘I think our scrum was pretty solid tonight and while we didn’t have a lot of scrums to operate off we were able to put them under a bit of pressure at scrum time.
‘‘Our lineouts have still got to be better so that will be a focus, especially coming up against the Stormers.
‘‘The ball is kicked out a lot in the modern game and there are a lot of lineouts so it’s an important source for us to launch off, but the boys are working hard and it will fall into place even though it hasn’t done so in the first couple [of games].’’