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Fissler Confidential: No clarity on Ireland star's future, Kiwi PREM-bound
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Bye bye Chiefs, thanks for coming
By Ben Smith
Is it too early to write off the Chiefs after a catastrophic collapse in Canberra to the Brumbies? The perennial chokers who have come up short in three straight finals?
After leading by 24-7 when Damian McKenzie strolled over to finish a team effort the game looked dead and buried, only for the Brums to get back on the horse and storm home in the final quarter.
A fairly controversial try to halfback Ryan Lonergan sparked the rally giving the home side hope, before breakout revelation Charlie Cale crashed over, Declan Meredith caught them napping and then speedster Cory Toole put the dagger in the Chiefs’ back with an intercept try with two minutes remaining.
This is the second meltdown in the opening five rounds from the Chiefs. After leading at home to the Crusaders by 21-7, they were run down by a Taha Kemara-inspired comeback and ended up losing 43-31.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
The Chiefs are not short of talent. They’ve got All Blacks all over the park, particularly up front where they boast of a lock factory and a loosie contingent that many would be envious of. Newly capped All Black Simon Parker, Samipeni Finau, Luke Jacobson, Wallace Sititi.
They’ve got the most dangerous outside backs in the competition, Emoni Narawa, Leroy Carter and the new recruit Kyren Taumoefolau, lured away from Moana Pasifika. Where was Taumoefolau against the Brumbies? Why would you sign one of the competition’s breakout stars just to sit him out of the 23 every week?
The rude truth is that the Chiefs have become soft. The Mana is gone. Nothing screams a marsh mellow defence like the Brumbies first try, a simple crash right up the middle off a scrum and scoring two phases later in front of an open line. The forwards were lazy inside 10 minutes.
They are addicted to champagne rugby, and while they are scoring some outrageous tries, the gritty defensive attitude is gone. They are so passive they are prone to getting run over.
So Josh Lord can gallop down the field and carry the ball in one hand, but can he dominate up front and crush ball carriers behind the gain line 10 times a game? Because ultimately that’s what the All Blacks need him to do.
It might be that the Chiefs didn’t understand the assignment. The Brumbies are equal to the Chiefs in attacking ability. They are the second best attacking side in the competition, with two outstanding ball carriers in the back row in Rob Valetini and Charlie Cale. If they get inside the five, they have power to capitalise.
The Chiefs’ Achilles heel has been discipline and turnovers conceded. They ranked near the bottom with 10.8 penalties a game, 8th-worst in the competition. They tackled at 90 per cent against the Brumbies, only missing 17 tackles, but conceded from close range four times and had the 100m intercept.
After their 26-0 win over the Hurricanes in pre-season, the fans wanted to crown them champs again. While the Hurricanes rested Du’Plessis Kirifi, Cam Roigard, Peter Lakai, Billy Proctor, the Chiefs rolled out nearly all their big guns. They beat up the Canes’ third stringers in the second half and wanted the Super Rugby Pacific trophy then and there.
Well, it’s lucky we didn’t give it to them.
The Chiefs were not convincing in their 2-0 start, beating the Blues by two points and the Highlanders by three. At the time it seemed like they were doing what good teams do, which is win when not playing well. Now it looks like this is really who they are. Bang average.
They are well and truly the most overrated team in the competition. They could be 1-4 right now and for their sake, thankfully they escaped losses in those first two rounds.
All they’ve done is beat up the worst team in the competition and they are privileged enough to play them twice. They will massage their schedule to get into the top six. There are too many All Blacks on that roster to miss out on the playoffs.
But can we really say the Chiefs are truly contenders anymore? It certainly doesn’t feel like it.
Chiefs, the title window is closing.
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