If anyone personified the Chiefs' appetite for their epic semifinal clash against the Crusaders it was hooker Hika Elliot, a player so badly affected by food poisoning during the week he was put on an intravenous drip.
Elliot became badly ill on Wednes-day and was unable to train on Thurs-day, which two days out from a match is the most important working day of a player's week. Instead, he was put on a drip, lost 2.5kg, and then had the misfortune after the Chiefs' 20-19 heart-stopping victory at Waikato Stadium on Saturday to be selected for a drugs test, for which he had to provide a urine sample.
There is no doubt he will look to this Saturday night's grand final clash against the Brumbies at the same venue with a great deal more relish.
"It was pretty bad, he was vomiting and so on," Chiefs coach Dave Rennie confirmed yesterday. "He was put on an IV but we did that here at our [Ruakura] base ... he trained on Friday at the captain's run but still wasn't 100 per cent.
"He did a great job for us. We stuffed up a few lineouts early on but the boys had tweaked the lineouts during the week and, of course, Hika wasn't able to train. That had a little bit of an effect. But certainly he was very physical around the field and had a high workrate. He gutsed it out. He's been good for us, Hika. He's made some real shifts in his game. He'll be better for us next week, obviously."
