Rugby: Lock it in: Brodie's back

Brodie Retallick will be welcomed back by the hit-and-miss Chiefs. Photo / Getty Images

Chiefs chuffed as world’s best player returns to make bad news Blues’ season even worse.

The pre-season favourites have flaunted championship form only in flashes but two facts should encourage the Chiefs.

First, they sit fourth on the table and have scored the second-most points ahead of tonight's clash with the Blues. And second, the best player in the world is about to return to their ranks.

Brodie Retallick will take the field for just the third time this Super Rugby season. The reigning world rugby player of the year has just 50 minutes under his belt in 2015, with a combination of rest and injury severely restricting his involvement.

But after missing five weeks - the longest injury lay-off of his professional career - Retallick will be back to bolster a Chiefs team that have struggled for consistency in recent weeks.

Since he trudged off the field after 10 minutes against the Crusaders in February, the Chiefs have gone win-loss-win-loss-win in Retallick's absence. And ahead of their bye week, victory over the last-placed Blues is essential if they wish to keep pace with the Hurricanes atop the New Zealand conference.

The injection of Retallick is a decent first step on that path, but that's not to say coach Dave Rennie has been desperately counting down the days until he could again pencil the lock into his lineup.

The Chiefs' lineout, in fact, has actually looked a lot better this season than it was last year. While a large part of that has been the steady presence of Hika Elliot at hooker, lock pairing Mike Fitzgerald and Matt Symons have performed admirably without their All Black cohort.

Through seven games, Fitzgerald and Symons sit first and second in minutes for the Chiefs. The former is fifth in the competition in lineout wins to help his side enjoy an 87 per cent success rate at the set piece, good for sixth-best in Super Rugby.

But, with a player of Retallick's ilk waiting in the wings, the partnership had to be broken up. The 23-year-old's impact all over the paddock is incomparable, leaving Fitzgerald the unlucky loser.

"I think there's a real amount of pressure that Brodie will probably feel," said assistant coach Tom Coventry. "Mike's been outstanding, so first and foremost [Retallick] has got to fill that lock role to the best of his ability, which is top class when he's at his best.

"The other boys have been doing a marvellous job but he'll rise to the occasion, he'll rise to the challenge of playing against the Blues."

That will hardly be music to the ears of the Blues, however. After all, a marauding Retallick charging downfield is just about the last thing a side still searching for their first win needs.

"I expect Brodie to be as uncompromising as usual," Coventry said.

"He's got a really high work rate and, regardless of whether he's played much rugby on the field, he's been keeping himself in pretty good nick.

"He's got high expectations of himself at lineout and scrum time, so I expect him to be pretty accurate. He might start blowing a little bit in the second half, so we'll keep an eye on him, but I don't expect Brodie to be playing too much less than his best."