Chiefs win secures Super Rugby finals spot
Related coverage
The Chiefs cemented a Super Rugby playoff spot with a 27-21 win over the Highlanders at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin on Friday.
The win was long-delayed revenge for the competition leaders, who were beaten 23-19 by the Highlanders in February’s opening round.
Tim Nanai-Williams opened the visitors’ account early after Sonny Bill Williams sliced through the midfield, found Tawera Kerr-Barlow on his inside who offloaded for Nanai-Williams to finish the 60-metre move.
The Highlanders kept in touch through three Chris Noakes penalties, but the Chiefs hit back late as halftime approached.
Giant prop Ben Tameifuna charged down a Noakes kick, and the Chiefs swung into attack mode. Kerr-Barlow and Williams featured again before new All Black Brodie Retallick’s quick hands found fullback Robbie Robinson out wide.
Ahead 18-9 at halftime, the Chiefs went further ahead at the restart through an Aaron Cruden penalty before the Highlanders hit back.
Fired up after a brawl following a Williams shoulder charge, replacement hooker Andrew Hore burrowed over from an attacking lineout to narrow the gap to just seven.
The battle up front was unrelenting, and the Chiefs scrum was kept under pressure by a Highlanders front row in no mood to back off.
But the mistakes crept in as the match wore on, and the Highlanders coughed up too much possession as they lost momentum and play grew increasingly scrappy.
With barely five minutes left, the Highlanders capitalised on some aimless Chiefs kicking to regain territory and Hosea Gear’s try came after strong Highlanders rucking.
Mike Delany added the extras, setting up a tense final few minutes which tested the Chiefs defence mightily right until the final whistle.
© AAP 2013
Passionate about your union? Then sign up to The Roar's brand new daily union email, delivering Roaring articles directly to you day-in, day-out. You'll love it!
Click here to join now!
The Crowd Says (34) | Page 1 of Comments
Have Your Say
- Explore:
- Chiefs, Rugby Union, Super Rugby
June 30th 2012 @ 6:05am
kovana said | June 30th 2012 @ 6:05am | Report comment
The pace of the match was quite outstanding.
I real great game of Rugby. From the running the ball from their own 22 to score length of the field tries, to the close quarter rumble from the ruck from Hosea gear for his try as well. Scrums were well contested on occasions. The 2 tightheads from the Highlanders were a highlight!
Also Thomsons aerial display at EACH restart was astounding… Looks like they are gleaming some tactics on restarts from 7s!
Awesome match.
Looked like a great crowd as well.
June 30th 2012 @ 6:49am
Taniwha said | June 30th 2012 @ 6:49am | Report comment
A “Williams shoulder charge”.
It’s ya classic SBW. Probably thinks he’s gone to the Roosters already. Good to see him get fired up. Be good to see him come up against somebody that can punch for once.
Hosea Gear had a pretty good game. Bit of a shame he muffed up that try. To me the game seemed very even, but as the old cliche goes “the bounce favors the winning tea”, the Highlanders just couldn’t seem to get that final touch.
June 30th 2012 @ 10:18am
katzilla said | June 30th 2012 @ 10:18am | Report comment
Is Bell Tea still the winning Tea in NZ?
I thought SBW was behaving like a right prat, he shoulder charged someone after the pass then got upset that someone took him out for it. Turn it up lol.
I’m with you on waiting for someone who knows how to throw a few having a go at him.
Was hoping that Hoeata was going to step up to the plate.
June 30th 2012 @ 10:47am
Damien said | June 30th 2012 @ 10:47am | Report comment
I saw the shoulder charge on Crooswell and thought it was just a lazy tackle. When he made contact he didn’t continue with it and then tried to wrap his right arm aroound to disguise it. NZ teams do it heaps and I didn’nt think too much. Play on.
Then the next ruck Crosswell picks the ball and SBW comes in so Crosswell tries to forearm/elbow him. SBW gets a better shot on him than the first one and then just ‘rag dolls’ Crosswell to the ground (this one was legal and probably hurt more than the illegal one.. At this time I still didn;t think much of it. Hoeata doesn’t like what he sees and swing at SBW although it doesn;t connect and just gets SBW across the chest/shouder. Then it all starts.
Personally I thought it was all good till Hoeata came in. But its understandable why he came in.
The telling thing I noticed that for all the pointing and huffing and puffing from SBW his game didn’t change at all after that.
We were thinking ‘uh oh..here we go SBW’s going to start hitting it up the guts and all that carry on, but much to our surprise he continued as he did in the first half and you wouldn’t have even known that he was cranky 5 minutes before.
I started thinking that he was either putting on the cranky act or he really does stick to the Cheif game plan.
Check it out here, the second hit that SBW puts on Crosswell round the 36 second mark was alot ‘rougher’ than the first one which is round the 25 second mark.
June 30th 2012 @ 1:16pm
Jerry said | June 30th 2012 @ 1:16pm | Report comment
Pretty poor ref management from SBW there.
June 30th 2012 @ 3:07pm
Damien said | June 30th 2012 @ 3:07pm | Report comment
Agreed there Jerry, although I took SBW’s ref management as a sign that even SBW felt that he was abit in the wrong.
Nothing from Crosswell even though he came in as things were settling down, and inflamed the situation even more.
Crosswell style during the ref’s lecture was better.
I think it was more of a scuffle than brawl though..
June 30th 2012 @ 8:18pm
kevin mac said | June 30th 2012 @ 8:18pm | Report comment
refs totally over-reacted. i think if there hadn’t been the scuffle then sbw wouldn’t have been penalised. but i think they penalised him because they saw how the scuffle distracted and paused the game and felt obliged to punish someone for that.
i also reckon hoeata and crosswell (though not as much) need to suck it up and not be so sensitive to aggressive play.
June 30th 2012 @ 8:26pm
kevin mac said | June 30th 2012 @ 8:26pm | Report comment
you were “hoping that Hoeata was going to step up to the plate”?!
what plate is he going to step up to when compared to sbw he would be a boxing novice?!
it’s like expecting sbw to “step up to the plate” of taking on one of the klitschko’s!!!
you obviously have no understanding about the full intricacies of boxing…it’s not just about being able to move your arm from a stand-still position. any punch hoeata would have thrown would have been easily negated by sbw’s defensive instincts, and all it would take sbw is 1 perfectly weighted and timed punch to fell hoeata like a tree.
….but for some people, reality hurts.
June 30th 2012 @ 7:05am
biltongbek said | June 30th 2012 @ 7:05am | Report comment
firstly let me say it was with envy that I watched the ball handling skills of the match, silently wondering whether Heyneke Meyer was watching this.
Similar to the thrid test vs Ireland the offload not only in the tackle but from the ground was well executed and the first half in particular was rather enjoyable.
What did disappoint me from the Highlanders was the collective effort (or should I say the lack of collective effort) from their forwards, the Chiefs did a real number on them in the first half.
One thing that does borther me quite a bit though is the tactics used by many NZ franchises and it it permiates through to their national side as well and that is theis constant offside blocking of the ruck, be it a player standing in front of the ruck in a blocking position or “backing away” from the offside position to ” allow” the halfback to get to the ball, meanwhile taking out players that want to counter ruck.
Yet the referees either don’t see it or aren’t bthered to police it. In my view it is blatant and should be erradicated from the game.
The Chiefs were also a little lucky with some of those shoulder charges, can’t remember that they were penalised at all?
Very enjoyable match.
June 30th 2012 @ 7:30am
moaman said | June 30th 2012 @ 7:30am | Report comment
Biltong….regarding your gripe about players lurking around the ruck….Ian “Kamo” Jones had this to say in the Herald (in response to a question)..”….on infringement around the breakdown is valid and sadly increasing as the referees are allowing this off-the-ball play to go unpunished. It is around this ruck/maul area that I would like to see tidied up also, focusing on stopping the defensive player walking around the ruck, past the halfback to get back onside (he doesn’t need to do this), jersey pulling and fringe defenders not getting back behind the hindmost feet.” I have sliced it up a bit but you get the drift.
Referees! They and the Laws are a vital component(obviously) of our great game,And they need to be in tune.
June 30th 2012 @ 8:57am
Kuruki said | June 30th 2012 @ 8:57am | Report comment
In New Zealand we have a very different interpretation of what constitutes a shoulder charge. To understand this all you need to do is listen to the commentary. The SBW incident one of the commentators mumbled “is that all”. In the Tameifuna incident one of them said “that’s fine the arm was up”. In Australia and South Africa the commentary would have been asking for yellow cards in NZ we love that stuff. Maybe we are just used to playing harder rugby coming up through the grades. IMO opinion s a shoulder charge should only be a tackle made side on where you are not facing your opponent when you hit them and when the elbow is bent much like when you are carrying the ball and bump into your opponent, anything else that has the arm even slightly away from the body should be play on. Im am seriously gobsmacked that contact made by the top of the shoulder can go from being a perfect tackle to be a shoulder charge depending on how high you bother to lift your arm, i mean seriously how does that change anything? Shoulder first contact is there in a perfect tackle and a shoulder charge i see no point in the way the law is at the moment.
I do agree on the players wandering around on the wrong side of the ruck it was noticeable especially Adam Thompson, but imo that’s just brilliant coaching. My gripe is with the ref’s not the players, good teams will push the boundaries right to breaking point and they are being allowed to get away with it to good effect.
I was actually quite impressed by the way Hore and Thomo were always pushing thru the ruck making a menace of themselves when Kerr Barlow was trying to clear the ball, simple things like this go along way to slowing down opposition ball and it’s clever.
June 30th 2012 @ 10:44am
justsaying said | June 30th 2012 @ 10:44am | Report comment
Totally agree with your description of shoulder charges Kuruki – very well put.
June 30th 2012 @ 4:12pm
biltongbek said | June 30th 2012 @ 4:12pm | Report comment
Kuruku, I am saying they were lucky as I have seen those shoulder charges been blown oten as well.It goes to the consistency of the application of the law.
If you blow one, you have to blow them all. Simples.
Talking about the player that walks offside on the ruck, it is time that the self same shoulder charge you are talking about is legallised at the ruck, shunt the toffee out of the guy if he is offside, maybe that will be the only way to force the referee to notice it.
June 30th 2012 @ 5:24pm
Kuruki said | June 30th 2012 @ 5:24pm | Report comment
Shoulders in the ruck are pretty much common place anyway, only a few pedantic refs pick up on the really obvious ones.
There is a simple way to fix everything about the ruck that has most people annoyed and frustrated weekly. It’s so simple that it astonishes me why the muppets in charge have not figured it out yet. Bring back rucking.
June 30th 2012 @ 5:36pm
biltongbek said | June 30th 2012 @ 5:36pm | Report comment
Absolutely agree with you on that.
June 30th 2012 @ 9:02am
kovana said | June 30th 2012 @ 9:02am | Report comment
[One thing that does borther me quite a bit though is the tactics used by many NZ franchises and it it permiates through to their national side as well and that is theis constant offside blocking of the ruck, be it a player standing in front of the ruck in a blocking position or “backing away” from the offside position to ” allow” the halfback to get to the ball, meanwhile taking out players that want to counter ruck.]
This,
I have seen the ABs do this Constantly.. It gives that extra second to their forwards to come in and counter ruck and steal the ball.
Meanwhile the ref just stands there doing nothing. It really should be a penalty offense.
June 30th 2012 @ 9:02am
Sam Taulelei said | June 30th 2012 @ 9:02am | Report comment
I agree Biltongbek regarding the use of the pillar as a blocker to interfere with the opposition’s attempts to counter ruck. It needs to be much better policed.
It will be interesting to see the impact of the new IRB initiatives with a time limit being placed on when the ball needs to be cleared from the base of the ruck. This has been another big bugbear of mine, watching halfbacks stand over the ball directing traffic, instead of clearing it.
Whether it’s just pure luck with timing for NZ but the arrival of three halfbacks who pass quickly will probably start a trend towards selecting halfbacks in that traditional mould rather than the Justin Marshall archetype who’s physique and strength offset any weaknesses in the speed and accuracy of their clearances.
June 30th 2012 @ 10:32am
katzilla said | June 30th 2012 @ 10:32am | Report comment
Yeah definitely, last night there were some pretty bad cases of players standing up over the ball then moving the wrong way.
The Highlanders are usually the best NZ exponents of ruck slowing but the Chiefs were all over it last night.
If the Highlanders had Cowan at halfback still the Highlanders would have gotten a truck load more penalties as the ball would have been noticeably slower coming out of the rucks. Last night Smiths crisp service under pressure may have worked against them.
June 30th 2012 @ 7:23am
David said | June 30th 2012 @ 7:23am | Report comment
G’day,
My latest pet hate is the way the team without the ball can slap (knock) the ball out of the ball carriers hands and in most cases win a scrum, the Chiefs first (from memory) was setup this way.
The team with the ball carries this way in order to pass it, you can’t pass it tucked up under the arm.
So the team trying to play running rugby looses out.
Congrats to the Chiefs, well done.
June 30th 2012 @ 8:29am
justsaying said | June 30th 2012 @ 8:29am | Report comment
I’m pretty sure there was a recent IRB law clarification that it’s no knock on where the ball is ripped out of the attacker’s grasp by the defender. This did seem to happen a lot in this game, although to be fair I think the defending team won possession in most cases by claiming the loose ball rather than by being awarded a scrum.
June 30th 2012 @ 8:20am
Damien said | June 30th 2012 @ 8:20am | Report comment
What a great game.
All NZ stadiums should covered or at least change all night games to Dunedin !!
June 30th 2012 @ 11:29am
Emric said | June 30th 2012 @ 11:29am | Report comment
agreed put a lid on the cake tin
June 30th 2012 @ 12:47pm
Kuruki said | June 30th 2012 @ 12:47pm | Report comment
It is great for the spectators but you do need to wonder now how much advantage the Highlanders have lost. Visiting teams from Queensland and such can come down to Dunedin mid winter and have a nice calm roofed stadium, where as in the past, numbing cold rain and wind would have given the home team the advantage. “The house of pain” will now be “The house of comfort”
June 30th 2012 @ 1:31pm
Sylvester said | June 30th 2012 @ 1:31pm | Report comment
Christchurch City Council this week voted against a roof for the new stadium. Shame, given it was literally freezing for the ABs test, but understable given we ratepayers have a city rebuild to pay for.
June 30th 2012 @ 1:37pm
p.Tah said | June 30th 2012 @ 1:37pm | Report comment
They should at least build a stadium that allows for the addition of a roof at a later stage.
June 30th 2012 @ 2:57pm
Sylvester said | June 30th 2012 @ 2:57pm | Report comment
If they don’t do it now I doubt they ever will, even with scope for retro-fitting. I’ll just buy more thermals with the rates saved…
July 1st 2012 @ 4:00pm
moaman said | July 1st 2012 @ 4:00pm | Report comment
that would be too sensible.
July 2nd 2012 @ 9:37am
atlas said | July 2nd 2012 @ 9:37am | Report comment
agree; I understand this is not a feature of Wellington’s stadium either, it will remain forever roof-less
June 30th 2012 @ 8:20pm
KiwiDave said | June 30th 2012 @ 8:20pm | Report comment
After tonight loss by the Crusaders to the Hurricanes, the Chiefs have now secured the New Zealand conference. They can get flogged in their next two games and it wont change the fact they cannot lose the NZ conference. The have 62 points and 12 wins. Next best is Crusaders with 52 point and 9 win. Even two 8+ point losses by the Chiefs and 2 bonus point wins by the Crusaders will see 62 points each and Chiefs winning the conference based on superior number of wins.
Well done Chiefs. Conference secured….Now win the whole lot
June 30th 2012 @ 8:42pm
Sylvester said | June 30th 2012 @ 8:42pm | Report comment
Strange performance from the Crusaders. They seemed all over the Canes, but missed crucial first-up tackles. Taylor’s missed penalty didn’t help near the end didn’t help.
The less said about Blind Bryce the better.
June 30th 2012 @ 10:40pm
KiwiDave said | June 30th 2012 @ 10:40pm | Report comment
Bryce did have a shocker. Just looked on the Super XV and low and behold, guess their writers must read here because they just posted a story about the Chiefs wrapping up the NZ conference LOL!
July 1st 2012 @ 5:32pm
biltongbek said | July 1st 2012 @ 5:32pm | Report comment
Yeah, Bryce must be my favourite referee in the world.
July 1st 2012 @ 10:18am
Expat in Mongolia said | July 1st 2012 @ 10:18am | Report comment
As with all rules, shoulder charges are a matter of interpretation by the ref of the day but I have got to agree SBW’s are at the extreme edge of the acceptable curve. One thing I have noticed and to me seems to be getting worse is players going off their feet at rucks and closing off the ball. Players just seem to flop over the ball which the ref lets go. All teams do it and generally no penalty ensues.
July 4th 2012 @ 12:55am
James said | July 4th 2012 @ 12:55am | Report comment
whether people see it as a shoulder charge or not, I hope someone in the next round or 2 can give one back to SBW. Remind him of his last couple of games in NZ before he buggers off to mungo ball.