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Chiefs tame Bulls to claim first win of Super Rugby season

By Chris Myson
Damian McKenzie was man of the match against the Bulls

The Chiefs earned their first win of the Super Rugby season with an emphatic away bonus-point triumph over the Bulls, while the Sharks beat the Rebels on Saturday.

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Brodie Retallick, Alex Nankivell and Solomon Alaimalo all scored twice as the Chiefs romped to a 56-20 win at Loftus Versfeld.

New Zealand lock Retallick struck either side of half-time to end the match as a contest, Alaimalo and Nankivell having earlier gone over as the visitors seized control.

Nankivell scored again before Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi and Alaimalo put the icing on the cake with tries inside the last six minutes. The impressive Damian McKenzie, who was named man of the match, added 21 points with the boot.

Jesse Kriel claimed a consolation try while the Chiefs were shorthanded with Alaimalo in the sin bin. Burger Odendaal also went over late on – those efforts plus 10 points from Handre Pollard, the competition’s top scorer this season, accounted for the Bulls’ scoring.

The Chiefs, who remain bottom of the New Zealand Conference, had failed to win any of their first five games this season, while the Bulls missed the chance to go top of the South African pool.

In Durban, the Sharks scored 12 unanswered second-half points to defeat the Rebels 28-14.

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The home side led by 10 midway through the first half, boosted by Daniel du Preez’s early try, but they briefly trailed after Tom English and Jack Maddocks dotted down for the Rebels, with Quade Cooper integral in both scores.

Robert du Preez’s penalty had the Sharks up by two at the break, before he went on to score a try himself after the interval on his way to 18 individual points. 

Makazole Mapimpi’s score just before the hour mark ended any hopes of a comeback from the Rebels – who remain second in the Australian Conference – as the Sharks snapped a two-match losing streak.

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Nickers 1 hour ago
The changes Scott Robertson must make to address All Blacks’ bench woes

Hopefully Robertson and co aren't applying this type of thinking to their selections, although some of their moves this year have suggested that might be the case.


The first half of Foster's tenure, when he was surrounded by coaches who were not up to the task, was disastrous due to this type of reactionary chopping and changing. No clear plan of the direction of travel or what needs to be built to get there. Just constant tinkering. A player gets dropped one week, on the bench the next, back to starting the next, dropped for the next week again. Add in injuries and other variations of this selection pattern, combined with vastly different game plans from one week to the next and it's no wonder the team isn't clicking on attack and are making incredibly basic errors on both sides of the ball.


When Schmidt and Ryan got involved selections became far more consistent and the game plan far simpler and the dividends were instant, and they accepted bad performances as part of building towards the world cup. They were able to distinguish between bad plans and bad execution and by the time the finals rolled around they were playing their best rugby as a team.


Chopping and changing the team each week sends the signal that you don't really know what you are doing or why, and you are just reacting to what happened last week, selecting a team to replay the previous game rather than preparing for the next one and building for the future.

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