'Let them off the hook': Jono Gibbes reflects on Crusaders defeat

Rugby Park in Hamilton played host to a Super Rugby Pacific thriller on Saturday evening, where Jono Gibbes’ Chiefs side fell short in the 2025 grand final rematch.

The home side started with a hiss and a roar, going up 14-0 within the opening half through tries to Quinn Tupaea and Etene Nanai-Seturo.

From the 25th minute to the 70th, the Crusaders dominated and managed to claw their way back into the contest thanks to a close-range hat-trick to All Black loose-forward Christian Lio-Willie.

Rob Penney’s team had a few standouts in Hamilton, with a couple of All Blacks, Will Jordan and George Bell, showcasing their class to help the Crusaders get back on track with their first win of the season.

“Not up to scratch? Probably more the accuracy levels. So I think we can look at our 22 meter entries and have a look at converting those,” the Chiefs head coach said.

“It’s an area that we’ve been historically really good at, but we were just a little bit off on that tonight. And those inaccuracies in those zones in particular, we let them off the hook a little bit the sustained pressure and the scoreboard as well.”

“I think what we’ve done as a group, working with the players, myself, with the staff, we didn’t get too high after the first two weeks, we kept it pretty realistic.

“What we were trying to focus on, and again, we won’t get too low after that, we’ll keep it realistic. We’ll be pretty honest and forthright now in areas that we need to improve on.

“But I think it’s round three good lesson out of today for us, and we’ll just keep building, we’ve got a good group.”

Chiefs captain Luke Jacobson told Sky Sport post-match that he feels like, despite the result, that was some of the best rugby the Chiefs have played all season.

“Yeah, it was really disappointing. Thought we came out, we played some really good footy to start with, probably the best we’ve played this season,” Jacobson said.

“We actually got some good momentum, some really good attacks and some good defence sets.”

Throughout the Kiwi derby, both teams were constantly at each other with pushing and shoving, and Jacobson believes his side didn’t adjust well enough to that in the second half.

“We probably got into a little bit of push and shove. And then on the back side of that, in the second half, we probably lost a little bit of our aggression. Went too far on the other side of it, and Crusaders stayed at the good level and got the better of us there.”