New Chiefs captain ready for ‘ding dong battle’ with Crusaders
The Chiefs will be keen to “right a few wrongs” when they run out against the Crusaders.
Changes since the southerners pipped Waikato 25-20 in the 2023 final include the team’s captain.
First on the field tonight will be Luke Jacobson - a Cambridge lad who has played 63 Chiefs games since his 2018 debut, and 18 All Black tests since 2019.
He’s stepped up after several senior Chiefs players headed offshore, including former co-captains Brad Webber and Sam Cane.
Jacobson’s happy to start off against the Crusaders.
“It's always a good ding dong battle between us. But obviously with the final last year [there] is that extra bit of blood in the mouth,” he said.
“Pretty keen to go out and right a few wrongs.”
Jacobson, a loose forward, grew up in Cambridge in a rugby family. Brother Mitch has played with him for Waikato and the Chiefs, and Kane for North Harbour.
Luke was in the Cambridge High School First XV and enjoyed going to his mate’s farm and “hooning around there”, hunting, and visiting the family beach house.
However, school wasn’t all about the oval ball. He was “quite into maths and physics” and “got all my NCEAs. I think it was two, maybe three, excellences and one merit”.
If he hadn’t been a professional rugby player he’d probably have been a builder, “because my old man is a builder”.
His thoughts of being some sort of trainer or working in biomechanics are parked for now.
As a youngster he idolised Waikato players and was happy to reach that level, not thinking his All Black dream would come true. So it’s “awesome” to now have one of the idols, Liam Messam, in the Chiefs coaching mix.
“He adds a lot, and just has high standards for the group.”
While there’s been plenty of training including pre-season games in Japan and the Blues - off the field Jacobson often fills his spare time by grabbing the golf clubs.
“There’s a good golf group in the Chiefs. So there's a few boys to play with. I play off a 14 handicap at the moment. It's gone up, which is not good.”
The beach is also another option, with the Coromandel being a favourite area.
“Waihī, Whangamatā, and the Mount actually, but I just tend to go to Raglan because it's nice and close.”
Jacobson lives in Hamilton with his partner Vienna, fellow Chiefs player Rameka Poihipi and his girlfriend, Grace, also a rugby player, and touch player Legin Hotham.
“We’re good mates, it’s a friendly sort of dynamic.”
They take turns cooking during the week. “I always love getting on the barbecue, the old classic sausages, steak sort of set up, potato salad, a few veggies,” Jacobson said.
“Or maybe like a creamy mushroom pasta, mushroom bacon, chicken pasta. Well, that's always the pre-game feed anyway.”
As for accepting the captaincy role Jacobson said he hadn’t ever seen himself doing it but he was proud to get the offer “from Donk” [coach Clayton McMillian].
“Sam [Cane] is a great leader, and he's left a big hole in our team... I have got to be who I am and lead how I can.”
And as for tonight’s game Jacobson admits it will be a “little bit different” running out first,
“I always love running out onto the FMG stadium, the favourite stadium in the world... We've got some wicked fans there that really came out in full force at the end of last year, so hopefully they'll start off where they left off.”
Tickets are still available, with kick-off at 7.05pm.