Nicola Lamb: 'Chiefs' can repay us for our patient wait

Opinion

Thirteen years of disappointment is a long time.

Long enough for an ankle biter to graduate to pimples and spiky hair.

Long enough for sporting dynasties to build and then tumble.

Long enough for the Old Enemy - Auckland - to become my second team.

In 1996 when Super rugby started, the IRA was still bombing the UK, Bill and Monica were getting cosy in the Oval Office and no one had heard of 9/11, YouTube, iPhones and LCD TVs.

It's been a tough 13 years supporting the Chiefs.

Putting up with those "Chefs" digs; wondering at the start of every year if we would break the mid-table barrier...

Waikato heroes Deon Muir, Marty Holah and Jono Gibbes came and went, the arranged marriage with North Harbour mercifully morphed into the closer chemistry with Bay of Plenty.

Yet still the Chiefs seemed to flounder with an identity that was either not enough or too tightly aligned with the Waikato NPC team.

Their play still carried traces of bumbling amateurism in comparison with the Crusaders' professionalism.

They were the epitome of promise that stubbornly refused to flower.

But this year it was different. Pundits saw the early losses to the Crusaders, Waratahs and Sharks as yet another likely-fatal, lumbering start to a Chiefs campaign.

Yet the losses were narrow, the Chiefs' defence much improved and a nascent style was there. That has grown with the team's confidence as their wins have mounted.

Finally the Chiefs, with the help of influential players from outside Waikato, have achieved an identity separate from the old Mooloo base, while still carrying the local passions with them.

And a fan's instinct gives me hope that the final, which appears to heavily favour the home team, is not a foregone conclusion.

Pundits deal in logic, but logic only goes so far with this Chiefs team.

Logic suggested - wrongly - that the Chiefs could not overcome a 0-3 beginning to reach the finals; that the Blues would beat them; that the Hurricanes would emerge victorious (twice) and the Chiefs would succumb to semifinal nerves.

Logic suggests that injuries to key players - and the loss of Sitiveni Sivivatu on that fast ground is severe - the plane flight to South Africa and playing at altitude will set them up for a beating at the hands of the Bulls.

Facts can be read either way. The Bulls won 10 round-robin games to the Chiefs' nine and beat them 33-27 at home. Going into the finals series the Chiefs rated better than the Bulls in terms of attack (tries scored) and defence (tries and points conceded).

But it's really the way the Chiefs threw themselves into their semifinal against the Hurricanes that showed how much resolve they have.

That desperation on attack and defence has been there before for Ranfurly Shield challenges in the Rugby Park mud but it has been less nakedly obvious from teams in Chiefs jerseys.

In the end, they may be beaten by a better team, but they have one shot and these Chiefs won't die wondering.

They'll be up for a challenge that's been 13 years in the making.

* Nicola Lamb is the Herald's Foreign Editor and a long-suffering Chiefs fan.