We all know the Chiefs are the best team in Super Rugby

I’ve felt bad for the Chiefs this season. 

We all know they’re the best team in Super Rugby, and it’s seemed a shame that they have to negotiate so many weeks of round-robin football until they can prove it. 

We also all know the Chiefs should have won the competition last year. But, such was the ineptitude and naivety of their performance in the final against the Blues, that the match was hardly even a contest. 

Well, the round-robin’s already done them in, by the looks. 

It’s not just that they lost 35-17 to the Hurricanes on Saturday. Defeats happen, especially on the road. 

No, I fear the Chiefs’ challenge for the title is over because of the injury-enforced absence of Anton Lienert-Brown. 

I try not to have favourite players, but I’ll happily admit Lienert-Brown is among the footballers whose efforts I appreciate most. 

Not flashy, nor big or especially quick. Skill-wise, Lienert-Brown’s competent but you wouldn’t say his passing and kicking games were elite. 

It’s the work rate and organisational side of his game that really appeal to me. The amount of times he arrives in cover defence or backs up a break is phenomenal. 

Lienert-Brown reads the game so well and his ability to snuff out opposition attacks is arguably without peer in this country. 

He’s not going to dominate any end-of-season highlight reels, but the value of his talk and of his effort is immeasurable to the Chiefs. 

I think Saturday showed us how gaping a hole’s been left by Lienert-Brown. 

Damian McKenzie will be back any day now and that’s a huge boost to the Chiefs’ attack. McKenzie is, by far, the most accomplished playmaker in Super Rugby Pacific. 

His ability to generate points, or at the very least points-scoring opportunities, makes the Chiefs incredibly dangerous. 

It’s just that the Hurricanes, with a makeshift first five-eighth in Ruben Love, took them apart at Sky Stadium.  

I can’t say for certain that Bailyn Sullivan wouldn’t have scored four tries if Lienert-Brown was in the Chiefs’ midfield, but I certainly suspect it. 

The Chiefs have all the talent in the world to blow other teams off the park. Their best rugby is absolutely brilliant. 

But they were found badly wanting in last year’s final. On an occasion – and in wet conditions – that called for accuracy and organisation, the Chiefs played like it was any other round-robin game. 

Who knows? Maybe a frenzy of attacking football will work for the Chiefs, should they make this season’s decider. 

I just think that, without Lienert-Brown, they’re far less likely to be able to defend the mistakes that inevitably come from playing adventurous rugby. We’ll see. 

I get that Lienert-Brown isn’t the most exciting player on the planet. I understand why some people can’t see why he’s a fixture in the All Blacks’ best 23. 

But I say to those people, did you watch the Chiefs on Saturday and did it give you some appreciation of Lienert-Brown’s value to that side?