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‘Do-or-die stuff’: What Chiefs assistant expects from Crusaders in decider
By Finn Morton
No team has ever beaten the Crusaders three times in a single campaign, but the Chiefs have an opportunity to rewrite history on the biggest stage in Super Rugby Pacific this weekend.
The Chiefs made a statement in the opening round of the season with an emphatic 31-10 win over the champion Crusaders in Christchurch.
Led by the likes of Damian McKenzie and Shaun Stevenson, a second-half blitz saw the visitors record a big win to start the campaign.
The title holders were stunned.
Weeks went by and the Chiefs continued to assert their championship credentials during an impressive unbeaten run, while the Crusaders struggled to regain their mojo.
The two New Zealand rivals met again in Hamilton in late April, and the Chiefs emerged victorious once again – although this was a much more competitive contest.
But the past is the past. The two proud rugby franchises will meet again on Saturday in the final - and both the Chiefs and Crusaders will believe that victory is within reach.
Depending on who you ask, the Chiefs are more than deserving of the ‘favourites’ tag ahead of the decider. But the Crusaders have a history of success and that can't be ignored.
The Chiefs and Crusaders are 80 minutes away from glory or heartbreak, but it’s an all-new ballgame in the playoffs.
In the leadup to this weekend’s final, assistant coach Nick White said the Chiefs might “only get one or two chances” against their old foes.
“I think it’s crucial. Do-or-die stuff from the last two weeks, we’ve been under the pump but we’re certainly going to be under the pump this weekend that’s for sure,” White said on The Platform.
“If we get given a few chances we’re going to have to take them otherwise it’s going to be a tough old night.
“We played them a couple of years ago down there in the final and we weren’t good enough to take our opportunities and hence (we came) second.”
The Chiefs were almost perfect throughout the regular season. A surprising three-point loss to the Queensland Reds in New Plymouth was the only blip in an otherwise sensational campaign.
But throughout the playoffs, the Hamilton-based outfit hasn’t quite reached the same heights.
After beating the Reds in a hard-fought quarter-final earlier this month, the Chiefs snuck by the ACT Brumbies at FMG Stadium last weekend.
As for the Crusaders, they’ve gone to an all-new level during the finals.
The Crusaders beat the Fijian Drua in the quarter-finals, before inflicting a devastating 52-15 win upon the Blues last Friday.
But that’s what the Crusaders do in the playoffs.
“I was a little bit (surprised). Not surprised by how well they played probably but I thought the Blues would certainly be able to chuck a little bit more at them,” White added.
“Sometimes when you’re playing games like that, nothing falls your way and it’s hard to get out of it.
“They were just unable to stop the momentum or anything.
“It’s easy to sit back from where we were on the couch and look at it and say, ‘Do this, do that.’ It’s bloody tough to stop a side when they get on a roll like that.
“We can see what they’re capable of.”
The Chiefs host the Crusaders in the Super Rugby Pacific final on Saturday at 7.05 pm NZST at Hamilton’s FMG Stadium.
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Latest Comments
Special player. The full set.
Go to comments“He won a ECL and a domestic treble at the beginning of his career.”
He won 2 ECLs at the beginning of his career (2009, 2011). Since then he’s won 1 in 15 years.
“He then won 3 leagues on the bounce later in his career”
He won 3 leagues on the bounce at the start of his career too - (2009, 2010, 2011).
If we’re judging him by champions league wins, he peaked in his late 30s, early 40s. If we’re judging him by domestic titles he’s stayed pretty consistent over his career. If we’re judging him by overall win rate he peaked at Bayern, and was better at Barcelona than at City. So no, he hasn’t gotten better by every measure.
“You mentioned coaches were older around the mid-2010’s compared to the mid-2000’s. Robson was well above the average age you’ve given for those periods even in the 90’s when in his pomp.”
Robson was 63-64 when he was at Barcelona, so he wasn’t very old. But yeah, he was slightly above the average age of 60 I gave for the top 4 premier league coaches in 2015, and quite a bit above the averages for 2005 and 2025.
“Also, comparing coaches - and their experiences, achievements - at different ages is unstable. It’s not a valid way to compare and tends to torpedo your own logic when you do compare them on equal terms. I can see why you don’t like doing it.”
Well my logic certainly hasn’t been torpedoed. Currently the most successful premier league coaches right now are younger than they were ten years ago. You can throw all the nuance at it that you want, but that fact won’t change. It’s not even clear what comparing managers “on equal terms” would even mean, or why it would be relevant to anything I’ve said.
“You still haven’t answered why Kiss could be a risker appointment?”
Because I’ve been talking to you about football managers. If you want to change the subject then great - I care a lot more about rugby than I do football.
But wrt Kiss, I don’t agree that 25 years experience is actually that useful, given what a different sport rugby was 25 years ago. Obviously in theory more experience can never be a bad thing, but I think 10 years of coaching experience is actually more than enough these days. Erasmus had been a coach for 13 years when he got the SA top job. Andy Farrell had been a coach for 9 when he got the Ireland job. I don’t think anyone would say that either of them were lacking in experience.
Now - what about coaches who do have 25+ years experience? The clearest example of that would be Eddie Jones, who started coaching 31 years ago. He did pretty well everywhere he worked until around 2021 (when he was 61), when results with England hit a sharp decline. He similarly oversaw a terrible run with Australia, and currently isn’t doing a great job with Japan.
Another example is Warren Gatland, who also started coaching full-time 31 years ago, after 5 years as a player-coach. Gatland did pretty well everywhere he went until 2020 (when he was 56), when he did a relatively poor job with the Chiefs, before doing a pretty poor job with the Lions, and then overseeing a genuine disaster with Wales. There are very few other examples, as most coaches retire or step back into lesser roles when they enter their 60s. Mick Byrne actually has 34 years experience in coaching (but only 23 years coaching in rugby) and at 66 he’s the oldest coach of a top 10 side, and he’s actually doing really well. He goes to show that you can continue to be a good coach well into your 60s, but he seems like an outlier.
So the point is - right now, Les Kiss looks like a pretty reliable option, but 5 years ago so did Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland before they went on to prove that coaches often decline as they get older. If Australia want Kiss as a short term appointment to take over after Schmidt leaves in the summer, I don’t think that would be a terrible idea - but NB wanted Kiss as a long term appointment starting in 2027! That’s a massive risk, given the chance that his aptitude will begin to decline.
Its kind of analagous to how players decline. We know (for example) that a fly-half can still be world class at 38, but we also know that most fly-halves peak in their mid-to-late 20s, so it is generally considered a risk to build your game plan around someone much older than that.
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