Big three line up against Reds’ danger- men

by Patrick McKendry Chiefs coach Dave Rennie is wary of focusing too much on the attacking threats of Will Genia and Quade Cooper, but there is little doubt selection of his best loose forward trio is a nod to the two Reds players’ abilities.

Rennie has gone for Sam Cane and Tanerau Latimer as his flankers, with captain Liam Messam at No 8, for the match at Waikato Stadium this afternoon. All are extremely mobile and pacey, important in particular when countering halfback Genia’s runs around the fringes.

The three have started together only once this season — in the narrow defeat by the Stormers in Cape Town — and Rennie was happy to acknowledge that Cane and Messam, current All Blacks, and Latimer, a former All Black, were his best loose forwards.

He said Fritz Lee’s illness this week — food poisoning, which came on top of a root canal — was not a factor in the selection process.

Lee, who has started at No 8 in three of the Chiefs’ six games this season, has been named on the reserves bench.

Messam has played mainly at blindside flanker this season, and Ross Filipo and Nick Crosswell have been occasional No 8s.

‘‘ They are our three best loosies — certainly Sam and Tanerau have been outstanding,’’ Rennie said.

‘‘ They’ve been really strong defensively and at the breakdown. They’ve both been carrying strongly and they’ve got good continuity . . . even though we’ve scored the most points in the competition we’re not where we want to be yet. We know we can be better games. It does give us a fair bit of strength in that area.’’

Rennie thought Messam had had a quiet start to the season but had picked up in the victories over the Kings, Highlanders and Blues which followed the loss to the Stormers.

It is clear that Rennie and the Chiefs see the Reds’ counter- attacking threat as particularly dangerous. While they are missing the injured Digby Ioane on one wing, his replacement, Rod Davies, will be one of the quickest players on the field.

Ben Tapuai, thriving after a move to second- five, is, like Genia, in impressive form.

‘‘ They’ve got threats all over the park,’’ said Rennie. ‘‘ Obviously [ flanker Liam] Gill’s very good over the ball, as are a number of their guys.

‘‘ We need to get them off the pill quickly. We need to be at our best and we need to treasure the ball because if you turn it over you can get really punished by these guys.

‘‘ We’re well aware of how they went through us last year [ a 42- 27 loss for the Chiefs at Suncorp Stadium]. We’ve put a lot of emphasis on our de- fence, but also when we have the ball because even though we’ve scored the most points in the competition we’re not where we want to be yet. We know we can be better.’’

The Chiefs beat the Reds on the Sunshine Coast in a pre- season match but have lost the past three competition games against them.

Ben Tameifuna gets a rare start at tighthead prop. The other change to the team which beat the Blues at Mt Maunganui puts Tim Nanai- Williams on the wing after his recovery from a groin injury.

He was playing centre but Richard Kahui’s form there since returning from a shoulder problem suggests Nanai- Williams will now be spending more time on the wing or at fullback.