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‘Have to step up’: Chiefs flyer Shaun Stevenson predicted playoffs destiny
From the opening whistle of the season, the Chiefs have been the form team of Super Rugby Pacific. Searching for their first title since 2013, they’re deserving of the ‘favourites’ tag ahead of Saturday’s decider.
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Destiny awaits the Chiefs.
But a hungry giant of the competition, who is eager to avenge a series of gut-wrenching defeats, is lurking in the shadows.
It’s quite rare that the champion Crusaders are beaten twice in a season by one team, let alone three times. But the Chiefs have an incredible opportunity to inflict the historic feat upon their New Zealand rivals.
When the Chiefs shocked the rugby world with an emphatic 31-10 win over the champion Crusaders in Christchurch to start the season, it left fans wanting more.
The countdown to the next meeting between the two New Zealand heavyweights began as the fulltime whistle sounded at Orangetheory Stadium – and the ‘rematch’ didn’t disappoint.
Playing in front of their home fans at FMG Stadium, the Chiefs held on for a valiant 10-point win over the defending champions in late April.
The Chiefs have well and truly established themselves as the team to beat heading into the business end of the competition, in fact they appeared unbeatable.
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But the Crusaders would surely pose a completely different threat in the playoffs – they’ve shown that over the last six seasons.
If the Chiefs were to end the Crusaders’ reign of dominance in Super Rugby, then they’d likely need to beat the title holders en route to glory.
It’s the clash that rugby fans wanted and Chiefs players expected.
Ahead of the Chiefs’ regular season clash with the Queensland Reds, fullback Shaun Stevenson told RugbyPass that his side would “probably” play the Crusaders during the playoffs.
“The boys are stoked to get two wins over them but we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves,” Stevenson told RugbyPass in May. “We probably will meet them again sometime in the finals.
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“We’ll just have to step up again.”
Chiefs flyer Shaun Stevenson has played a key role in their outstanding season so far.
Stevenson has showcased an elite standard of skill, execution and patient during a career-best season.
But, just as it is with any great player, it’s his ability to seemingly predict what’s about to happen that separates him from the rest.
Incredibly, it seems that Stevenson’s rugby IQ goes beyond the field of play.
Having predicted the Chiefs’ decisive playoff clash with the defending champions, it seems that Stevenson really can do it all in a rugby sense.
Stevenson has been a try-scoring machine for the Chiefs this season, and was included in the All Blacks’ Rugby Championship squad as injury cover for winger Mark Telea.
“I guess it’s just (about) popping up in the right spots in the right time and trying to put myself in good positions where I can score,” he added.
“These days it’s not all about scoring tries and what not, you want your team to play well and obviously if me scoring tries is going to get the win then I’m happy to keep doing that.
“It’s just one of those things where it’s just (about) being in the right place at the right time and there’s obviously other boys in the team that are scoring good tries as well.
“It’s a team effort. I’m the one that might be putting the ball down but there’s plenty of boys that are doing the hard (yards) for me.
“It’s just a good team performance whenever someone scores a try.”
The Chiefs host the Crusaders at Hamilton’s FMG Stadium in the Super Rugby Pacific decider on Saturday at 5.05pm NZST.
Comments on RugbyPass
Kok will become a fan favourite
1 Go to commentsI am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
84 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
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