Chiefs find their try-scoring mojo

The five tries against the Crusaders at Waikato Stadium on Saturday were a breakthrough for the Chiefs in this Super Rugby derby, Evan Pegden writes.

Two years ago the Chiefs visited Christchurch late in the Super Rugby season and got soundly thumped – five tries to two.

It turned out to be a pivotal point in their season as it knocked any complacency out of the New Zealand Conference pace-setters. Two weeks later they edged the Crusaders by a point in their semifinal back in Hamilton before going on to retain the title they first won in 2012.

But at the time such a defeat would have hurt like hell. It was something occasionally the Crusaders had always been able to turn on – that high-scoring one-off performance in a big game at home.

For the Chiefs, their wins in this now well-established conference rivalry have always been hard-fought, ground out, narrow victories. They have never managed a try-scoring bonus point against the Crusaders. Until Saturday night, that is.

This time it was the Chiefs scoring five tries to the Crusaders’ one in their round-three clash at Waikato Stadium. After weathering an initial eight-minute storm from the Crusaders where the home side’s discipline flew out the window in the heat of such intensity and another strong opening five minutes by the visitors to the second half, the Chiefs reigned supreme.

‘‘[Head coach Dave Rennie] laid the challenge out to us at the start of the week that no Chiefs side has ever scored four tries against the Crusaders and it was something we wanted to do,’’ tryscoring fullback Tom Marshall said. ‘‘I’m sure he’ll be pretty happy with that.’’

The Crusaders have not conceded that many tries in quite a while but it was the Chiefs’ defence and power/pace attack game that ruled the roost.

Maybe it was the raucous crowd of 18,166, roaring their heroes on, or maybe it was finally a reflection of the sort of personnel the Chiefs have in 2015.

The Chiefs have signalled they are not

There were plenty of these at Waikato Stadium on Saturday night as the Chiefs scored five tries. only back as realistic Super Rugby title contenders but have returned to the sort of try-scoring form that marked their last winning season in 2013.

In that year they scored a competitionleading 54 tries in 18 games at an average of three a match, while in their other championship year, 2012, they scored 53. Last year that had slipped to 48 (fourth best) in 17 games and they didn’t get past a playoff qualifier.

In their first two matches this year they chalked up wins but scored only three tries, tagged by many as a gutsy, grinding side that lacked the try-scoring flair of the Hurricanes and Brumbies.

Marshall moved from the Crusaders last season, but in his only appearance against his old team he was part of an 18-17 loss in Hamilton.

‘‘They’re always high-intensity games and at the end of the day it comes down to that physical battle and tonight our boys were really good up front, which was where it was won I think.

‘‘We were lucky enough on a couple of occasions to be on the end of highpressured rugby, and a few of the boys got some pretty easy tries,’’ he said.

Rennie and his coaching staff were ‘‘stoked’’ with the performance, but did get some urgent messages to their troops after a ‘‘scratchy’’ start.

‘‘But in the end we played at the right end of the field – I thought our kicking options were really good – we defended pretty well down there, forced a few errors or forced them to kick out and we got the set-piece down there,’’ he said.

‘‘So for the majority of the game we controlled it pretty well and got over the chalk five times, which has never been done in the history of the Chiefs against the Crusaders.’’

After soaking up the initial Crusaders onslaught and some brutal physical clashes, the Chiefs’ forwards, whose lineout work is one thing that is highly improved this season to date, got on top of the red pack and in conjunction with

Johan Bardoul celebrates Tom Marshall’s try for the Chiefs at Waikato Stadium on Saturday night. their big backline started to get over the gain line regularly while forcing errors with their defence that was rewarded with some soft tries on the counter.

Halfback Augustine Pulu, playing like a man trying to win back the No 9 jersey from Brad Weber, gave the Chiefs the perfect physical sniping around the fringes and that combined with Sonny Bill Williams’ huge if understated presence allowed Aaron Cruden to challenge the Crusaders’ defence and get his team rolling forward.

However, Rennie is a perfectionist and was far from happy with the accuracy of his team’s closing effort.

‘‘We weren’t very happy with the last 15 minutes – the quality of our finishing.

‘‘We had opportunities where we should have scored again. You want those guys coming off the bench to impact on the game and while there was plenty of enthusiasm and that sort of thing, but we just lacked a little bit of polish,’’ he said.