Chiefs 49
Crusaders 24
Clayton McMillan did his best during the week to downplay suggestions he was developing his own bomb squad at the Chiefs.
Unfortunately for the coach, his replacements seem to have other ideas.
The Chiefs tonight rode another dominant second half to their second straight win, racing away from the Crusaders and into early Super Rugby Pacific favouritism.
A week after shutting out the defending champion Blues for the final 40 minutes at Eden Park, the Chiefs again locked down their defence when it mattered while running in five second-half tries.
As in Auckland, this contest flipped when McMillan turned to his bench, making four changes with the scores level shortly after the break. Within a few minutes of that quartet being introduced, the Chiefs had two tries and never looked back.
There was some merit to McMillan’s denial that he was deploying a tactic trademarked by Rassie Erasmus and the Springboks – the Chiefs changed up their bench with seven alterations from the side who avenged last year’s final defeat by the Blues.
But McMillan did hold back two All Blacks in Samipeni Finau and Cortez Ratima and both played integral roles once introduced, the flanker in particular after skipper Luke Jacobson had been forced off through a failed HIA in the opening exchanges.
That loss and a yellow card for Tupou Vaa’i allowed the Crusaders to enjoy a wealth of possession as they sought to replicate last week’s impressive win over the Hurricanes.
But the visitors had no answer for the tempo of the Chiefs attack once the bench had been cleared, being hit by wave after wave of incisive running and exemplary handling.
The Crusaders barely had time to catch their breaths as kickoffs were turned into lightning-fast breaks, the contest exploding after parity had been fiercely established in the first half.
Rob Penney’s side might have been on better than level footing had they cut out errors and protected the ball a bit better. But the Chiefs deserved ample credit for their ascendancy at the breakdown, exemplified by Emoni Narawa snaffling two key turnovers to snuff out one potential try and set up another.
“I’m pretty proud of our effort tonight,” the wing told Sky Sport. “I thought our forwards went pretty well, our defence was something to be proud of, and it was good to come away with a win.”
That defence was essential as the Chiefs battled with ill-discipline that allowed the Crusaders to initially control field position, cancelling out Narawa’s early try as Kyle Preston nabbed his fourth of the season after good work from Taha Kemara.
The Waikato product produced another strong showing while playing in front of family, shining with his footwork and offloading when taking the ball to the line. But the first-five came off early in the second spell and, unlike last week, James O’Connor never took command of the game.
Quite the opposite.
“We thought our discipline let us down in the first half and it was something we wanted to work on,” Narawa said. “We were just trying to build momentum and it was good to come away with a few points in that second half.
“The coaches give us free licence to play, back our skill set and back ourselves, and that’s what the boys did.”
The midfield combo of Anton Lienert-Brown and Quinn Tupaea was pivotal to that, the former active and elusive in his first start while the latter was introduced early for his 50th Chiefs appearance.
After the game-breaking double-strike from Finau and round-one standout Leroy Carter, Tupaea was able to celebrate with a brace as the Chiefs recorded their highest points tally against the Crusaders in Super Rugby history.
Chiefs 49 (Emoni Narawa, Xavier Roe, Leroy Carter, Samipeni Finau, Josh Jacomb, Quinn Tupaea 2 tries; Damian McKenzie 4 cons, 2 pens)
Crusaders 24 (Kyle Preston, Ethan Blackadder, Antonio Shalfoon tries; Taha Kemara 2 cons, James O’Connor pen, con)
HT: 17-14
'What happens in round one and two has very little bearing on what happens later on'