Assistant coach Tom Coventry says the Chiefs will have to play smarter rugby if they want to avoid a repeat of last season’s woes against the Brumbies.
The men from ACT ended the Chiefs’ hopes of a three-peat of Super Rugby titles with a 32-30 win in the quarter-finals, which followed an earlier 41-23 hammering in the round-robin stage in Canberra.
The Australians were the pick of the bunch from the opening round of this year’s competition, with a clinical 47-3 dismantling of the Reds, and they will travel to New Plymouth for Friday’s clash with plenty of confidence.
“We’re very wary of them,” Coventry said.
“We respect them immensely but we’ll be trying to put them under a bit more pressure than we did in 2014.”
To do that, they will need to be consistently quick off the line on defence and disrupt the Brumbies’ quality set-piece, particularly the lineout.
“They like to exhaust a team. They like to put pressure on you in your own half,” Coventry added.
“We don’t want to get caught in our own half and then end up having to defend a strong lineout.
“We’ve got to be smart about how we get ourselves out of pressure but then also putting them under the same pressure down their end of the field.”
The return of All Blacks Aaron Cruden and Liam Messam to the starting line-up should help with that.
Messam, Sam Cane and Maama Vaipulu form a potent loose forward trio, while the combination of Brad Weber, Cruden, Sonny Bill Williams and Charlie Ngatai should test the Brumbies’ defence more than the Reds did.
James Lowe, who has switched from wing to fullback to accommodate the inclusion of Hosea Gear on the wing, provides another solid kicking option at the back.
Also promoted to the starting line-up is prop Jamie Mackintosh.
All Blacks Brodie Retallick, the 2014 world player of the year, and Augustine Pulu will bring impact off the bench.
Like all the All Blacks, Retallick’s workload is being carefully managed with the World Cup in mind, but the decision not to start him was made easier because of the performances of locks Matt Symons and Michael Fitzgerald.
“He’s got a lot of footy ahead of him,” Coventry said.
“We’re conscious of that and we’re conscious that as the season wears on Brodie is going to have a bigger and bigger workload. We’ve got to pace them (the All Blacks).”
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