‘Method in the madness’
Earning a home quarterfinal is firmly on the mind, but Clayton McMillan is still dedicated to rotating his squad prior to that fixture.
Earning a home quarterfinal is firmly on the mind, but Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan remains resolute in rotating his squad in the leadup to that fixture.
The Chiefs will welcome back two of their big guns in Brad Weber and Josh Ioane for Sunday’s Super Rugby Pacific clash against the Rebels in Melbourne but several other key performers will put their feet up this weekend.
All Blacks lock Tupou Vaa’i, inform young halfback Cortez Ratima, hot-to-trot centre Alex Nankivell, along with first fiveeighth Bryn Gatland and winger Jonah Lowe have all been left out of the 23, while impressive and explosive No 8 Pita Gus Sowakula will play from the bench at AAMI Park, as McMillan balances getting enough game time in, and out, of his troops ahead of the playoffs.
‘‘There’s just a need to give some guys some minutes to try get our whole squad to a place where we’re fit and firing for a quarterfinal,’’ McMillan said after training yesterday, ahead of a 3am rise for a 6am Friday flight to the Victorian capital.
‘‘That’s not to underestimate the next three games. The Rebels, the Force, the Drua have all demonstrated on their day they can trouble the best teams, so we respect that, but it has to be balanced with, for us, an ability to put out a fairly consistent side, but rotate two or three players in or out.
‘‘There’s all a bit of a method in the madness.’’
Co-captain and All Blacks halfback Weber returns after three weeks out with a neck injury, while one-test ABs first-five Ioane has missed the last five games due to a rib problem, and the duo will immediately inject a decent chunk of class, and know-how.
‘‘You can’t beat experience,’’ McMillan noted. ‘‘But the flipside of not having those guys is that we’re actually building experience by giving those young guys an opportunity. So it’s a bit of a double-edged sword. But in a perfect world, you want your best players out on the field.
‘‘They’ve been training for the last couple of weeks, so it’s not like they’re coming in completely out of the cold ... how long they last for, that’s a different question,’’ he said.
All Blacks lock Brodie Retallick is edging closer to a return from his broken thumb, and took a full part in training yesterday, but is being cautiously managed.
‘‘He’s ready to go, and we’re all keen to get him back,’’ McMillan said. ‘‘The surgeons just want to be really ultra-conservative, so we’re not going to take any chances with him until he’s fully healed, not 90% healed or 95% healed.
‘‘So another week we probably do him the world of good. He’ll be a bit of a wound-up spring by then, but that’s not a bad thing for us.’’
The Chiefs occupy fourth spot (32 points) but only on points differential from the Waratahs, with the Reds (31) and Hurricanes (29) also lurking. And with a sevenpoint gap between the Chiefs and the third-placed Crusaders, it’s looking like a scrap for that crucial fourth spot.
‘‘We want to be playing a home quarterfinal, and we feel like we need to win three games to achieve that,’’ McMillan said. ‘‘We don’t need to concern ourselves with what other teams are doing, we just need to take care of and respect each team we play, and we’ll get what we’re prepared to earn.’’
On the back of being outclassed by the Brumbies last weekend, McMillan is wanting his team to cut down their high turnover rate and get ruthless and clinical in their execution, against a Rebels side he rates as much better than the 71-28 defeat to the Blues at Eden Park last Friday indicates.
‘‘I just think that they’re one of those teams that are better than what their recent scorelines have reflected,’’ he said.
‘‘They’ve got ability, they’ve got a good maul, they’ve got some good, strong ball carriers, they’ve got Wallabies sprinkled throughout their team. So they’ll be a challenge.’’