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Chiefs gear up for Blues battle

By RugbyPass

The Chiefs are looking to notch their fifth consecutive victory when they take on the rival Blues in Hamilton on Saturday.

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A win will see the Hamilton side continue their unbeaten run against the Blues – a run that dates back 13 meetings and seven years.

Despite the team’s form and history against the Blues, Colin Cooper still sees this as a very important match and is wary of the Auckland franchise.

“There is a great rivalry between the Chiefs and the Blues, and this time it is in our Whare [house]. The Blues are going to bring everything – they’ll be coming with a lot of passion this weekend.”

Cooper has made three changes to his starting side that beat the Highlanders last weekend.

Lachlan Boshier starts at blindside flanker and Pita Gus Sowakula grabs the No. 8 jersey after a strong debut off the bench last week.

In the backline, Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi gets a start at halfback and Jonathan Taumateine comes in as cover for the injured Brad Weber (wrist).

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“We’ve shown a lot of heart which is great, but we just need to make sure that we play a bit smarter,” said Cooper.

“The Blues will be dangerous. We need to make sure that we have our structures right, our attitude right, and play the game we know we can play. They are great ball carriers so we need to make sure that we tackle well and that our defence systems work.”

The last time the two teams met was in week three, where the Chiefs pulled off a 27-21 victory at Eden Park.

CHIEFS

1. Aidan Ross, 2. Nathan Harris, 3. Angus Ta’avao, 4. Brodie Retallick, 5. Tyler Ardron, 6. Lachlan Boshier, 7. Sam Cane (CC), 8. Pita Gus Sowakula, 9. Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi, 10. Damian McKenzie, 11. Sean Wainui, 12. Johnny Fa’auli, 13. Anton Lienert-Brown, 14. Toni Pulu, 15. Solomon Alaimalo.
Reserves: 16. Liam Polwart, 17. Karl Tu’inukuafe, 18. Jeff Thwaites, 19. Luke Jacobson, 20. Liam Messam, 21. Jonathan Taumateine, 22. Charlie Ngatai (CC), 23. Marty McKenzie.

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J
Jon 9 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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