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Breakdown battle remains a constant when Chiefs and Highlanders meet

By Campbell Burnes
Chiefs v Highlanders

Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.

The Chiefs and Highlanders lock horns tomorrow in the opener of Super Rugby 24 at FMG Stadium Waikato.

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That is, Rugby Park. For some reason, my thoughts harked back to opening weekend 2012 when the same two sides faced down at the same Hamilton venue.

Only the Smiths – Ben and Aaron – for the Highlanders and Brodie Retallick for the Chiefs will again suit up in 2019. But while the personnel in rugby changes almost like the wind, some things stay the same.

The contest for the breakdown, for one.

You can kick your goals, win all your set-piece ball and tackle your hearts out, but come second in the collisions and invariably you come second on the scoreboard.

Back to that balmy Waikato night on February 25, 2012. I was there covering the clash for Rugby News magazine, back when it was still your indispensable weekly publication.

The crowd was expectant. The Chiefs had never won the title, but Dave Rennie and Tom Coventry were the new coaches and they had pulled together a seemingly disparate bunch from no less than nine provinces. The Chiefs faithful were desperate to pin their hopes on men whom they did not know well but had come with reputations, big and small.

They were to be disappointed that night.

It was not that the Highlanders, astutely coached by Jamie Joseph, won 23-19. Aaron Smith and future Scotland international Phil Burleigh and Chris Noakes – Chris Noakes! – kicked five goals. Lelia ‘The Flash’ Masaga scored the Chiefs’ only try and Aaron Cruden also slotted five goals. Those were the bare bones of the scoring.

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No, it was the fact that the Highlanders brought a physicality and accuracy to the collisions that clearly surprised the Chiefs. The southerners fielded Nasi Manu, another future Scotland international John Hardie, and Adam Thomson in the loose trio, but importantly they had hard nuts such as Nick Crosswell and Andrew Hore in the tight. Centre Tamati Ellison, incidentally, also handy over the ball, virtually jumped off a plane from Japan and proceeded to have a blinder.

The Chiefs had no doubt been doing all the right things in pre-season, and they fielded Fritz Lee, Sam Cane and Liam Messam in the loose. Brodie Retallick was at lock, while Tanerau Latimer came off the bench.

But the Highlanders got the hard point of their shoulders on and just brought unremitting early season intensity. In Thomson they had the best player on the park and a tremendous Super Rugby performer (he wasn’t a bad All Black, either). He was fast, a more than useful fetcher and a viable lineout option. That night he played like a combination of Richard Hill and Neil Back, or Rodney So’oialo and Richie McCaw, if you will.

The Chiefs looked somewhat shell-shocked in the after-match press conference. But there was a certain steel in coach Rennie’s eyes that this was the first and last time they would lose the breakdown battle. That 80 minutes may have in fact sown the seeds for the franchise’s first Super Rugby triumph. They reeled off nine straight wins and tweaked their match-day squad. The uncompromising, bruising Manu Samoa rep Kane Thompson usurped Lee for the No 8 jersey, Cane got tougher and Liam Messam upped the ante to play some of the best footy of his career. Mike FitzGerald played some hard-nosed code off the bench or starting at lock. Coventry drove his pack relentlessly and it paid off.

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So to tomorrow night. The Highlanders have bolstered their lineout by playing Jackson Hemopo on the side of the scrum. In James Lentjes and Luke Whitelock, they have fierce tacklers, both solid over the ball. But there is no Liam Squire nor Elliot Dixon, both breakdown bruisers, while fetcher Dillon Hunt wears jersey No 20.

The Chiefs might just have the breakdown edge, even without Cane. They have fielded two opensides in Lachlan Boshier and Mitch Brown, while No 8 Tyler Ardron, and locks Retallick and Michael Allardice relish shifting bodies. Then they can wheel on rugged ball carriers like Taleni Seu and Jesse Parete.

Keep a close eye on the collisions. That battle will set the tone, perhaps for the season.

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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