Jono Gibbes on the encouraging trend behind Blues triumph

Chiefs head coach Jono Gibbes admits his side didn’t get everything right against the Blues at FMG Stadium Waikato in Hamilton, despite running away comfortable winners, 59-34.

The Blues started the brighter of the two sides in the Saturday evening contest, proving tough to contain at breakdown time, and through their potent one-off ball carriers.

A second-half flurry of tries by the Chiefs ruled out the Blues’ chances of hosting a Qualifying Final next week, sending them to Christchurch instead, for a matchup with the Crusaders at One New Zealand Stadium.

Gibbes, who spoke to media in Hamilton post-match, explained that the victory against the Blues shows that their work with the wider-training group has come off.

“I’m really pleased for the group as a whole. I think you guys talk about who’s left out, we always talk about who’s  actually in there, and I think days like today they come about through what happened in December, what’s been going on since January, and it’s a reflection of the group as a whole,” Gibbes said.

“That no matter who plays, the pride and putting performances together, that shone through, it wasn’t an 80 minute performance, but I thought we shifted gears in that second half, and looking at that scoreboard, it’s a reflection of the strength of the group as a whole.”

The former New Zealand U20 head coach believes next week’s selection decisions will be difficult, but won’t cause headaches, as he trusts the strength of the group.

“I think it’s not so much headaches, we talk about confidence, like we’ve got a group that whoever gets called upon, we’ve seen them tonight, whoever gets called up, they will answer, and they will be ready.

“So, yeah, what got reinforced tonight for us as a coaching group is that we’ve got a good group that all want to play and will be ready to play. So some guys performed tonight, we’ve got the benefit of knowing that whoever the 23 are, they’ll be ready.

This time around, the Queensland Reds come to Hamilton on the back of a 45-24 victory over the Fijian Drua in Brisbane.

Gibbes is aware of the threats the Reds pose, pinpointing a couple of danger areas the Chiefs will have to nullify.

“Big battle again, as you’d expect, at Quarter-final time in this competition. We had a good 80 minutes against them, a good challenge a few weeks back.

“They play a positive style, good organisation. Use the full 70 meters, the little sneak attack that they have on the edges is things you’ve got to look out for, all the time.

“So they’ve got good speed, and obviously a back row that would bring a good battle through the middle.”