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Why last week’s surprising loss to Reds was ‘good’ for Chiefs
By Finn Morton
The Chiefs may have lost their first game of the Super Rugby Pacific season last weekend, but they aren’t exactly panicking – in fact, they’re taking plenty of positives out of the defeat.
As American basketball coach Morgan Wootten famously said, “You learn more from winning than losing.” That’s exactly how the Chiefs are dealing with their surprising round 12 loss.
Last Friday in New Plymouth, the Queensland Reds stunned the previously unbeaten Chiefs 25-22. Replacement Tyrone Thompson attempted to win it at the death, but was held up by the valiant Reds defence.
With five pumps of the whistle, referee Paul Williams officially brought the thrilling trans-Tasman clash to a close.
Chiefs players dropped their heads, some even fell to the ground – meanwhile, the Reds burst into frenzy as they began to significance of the victory following a tough campaign.
Chiefs centre Alex Nankivell explained why the three-point loss was “probably good” for the ladder-leaders ahead of the knockout stage of the competition.
“It’s probably good timing for a bit of a grounding moment,” Nankivell told SENZ Breakfast.
“If we had of won that you might not take the same lessons going forward and especially at this time, we’ve only got three games left.
“The coaches made it pretty clear not to call anyone out, it was about the boys getting better and ultimately get a win this week and continue our process towards our goal at the end of the year.”
But a week is a long time in rugby. For both the Chiefs and Reds, they can’t afford to dwell on the past.
The Chiefs are preparing to host the high-flying Hurricanes in Hamilton on Saturday, as the race for top four spots continues to heat up in the business end of the season.
“Obviously it’s going to be challenging against the ‘Canes this week, so we need to be a bit better than we were against the Reds,’ Nankivell added.
“It’s always good to challenge yourself against the best in the comp and the world some would say.”
The Hurricanes are missing some key players though, with captain Ardie Savea, Jordie Barrett and Tyrel Lomax all mixing the round 13 clash due to the All Blacks’ resting policy.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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