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Warren Gatland reveals the secret behind the Chiefs' second half comebacks

By Online Editors
(Photo by Michael Bradley/Getty Images)

Chiefs head coach Warren Gatland has given a rare insight into his halftime team talks after the Hamilton franchise completed their second successive second half comeback against the Crusaders on Saturday.

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The back-to-back-to-back reigning Super Rugby champions took a 12-8 lead into the halftime break at Waikato Stadium over the weekend, but Gatland’s men put in a storming second half effort to walk away with a 25-15 victory.

The result follows on from the Chiefs’ 37-29 win over the Blues at Eden Park in round one, when the visitors overturned 19-5 deficit at the break.

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Speaking to TVNZ on Monday, Gatland claimed there was “a bit of luck involved” in the win against the Crusaders compared to their success against the Blues.

“We had to sort a few things out at halftime, just to get the defensive things right,” he said.

“Normally, the Crusaders are really strong in the second half and we’d seen their preseason games and warm-up games so to come out in the second half and keep them try-less was a pretty good effort.”

While maintaining a level of discretion about his halftime speech, Gatland opened up about what was said to his players as they looked to overcome the Crusaders’ four-point lead.

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“The thing at halftime is sometimes you come in and there’s a lot of emotion so you spend the first three-four minutes with players rehydrating, taking a bit of time to calm and relax.

“We split into a couple of groups – the forwards sort a few things out and [so do] the backs – and then we’ll deliver a couple of messages from a coaching perspective whether it’s attack or defence.”

The 56-year-old former All Blacks hooker, who will take charge of the British and Irish Lions for the third time next year during their tour of South Africa, unveiled that it took more than just words to get his message across to his side.

“We showed them a video I’d gotten the analysts to clip up that we needed to work on from the first half and we just showed that,” Gatland said.

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“It was something that we needed to work on and improve on. It was a drill that we’d been running at training and it emphasised that we weren’t quite there in that first half and in the second half we improved significantly and we defended exceptionally well in that second half.”

The Chiefs will now travel to Tokyo to face the Sunwolves this weekend, although they will have to play the Japanese franchise without a raft of key players, including All Blacks stars Sam Cane, Anton Lienert-Brown and Aaron Cruden.

In other news:

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Trevor 2 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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Bull Shark 6 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

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