Rugby: Chance for Chiefs to build their pedigree

Aaron Cruden of the Chiefs. Photo / Getty Images

We might be past the phoney war stage but there is still an element of mirage to the early rounds of the Super 15.

Reasons are invented as to why matches carry more significance than they possibly could. Even two rounds in we're reaching for patterns and trends that simply have not had time to emerge.

We fall back on long-standing prejudices to explain away poor performances and are in an unseemly rush to anoint those who show early season form.

This is all true and yet ... it is hard not to look at the Chiefs' clash against the Crusaders in Napier tonight as something more meaningful than a run-of-the-mill, week three match.

Undoubtedly, it carries more weight for the Chiefs than it does the Crusaders. Call it lazy thinking if you want, but you just know the team from Christchurch is going to be there or thereabouts at the sharp end of the season.

They've got too many class players returning and also have the imminent advantage of finally having a home ground. With a rugby-starved public hanging out for their return to Christchurch, it is hard to see the Crusaders being rolled too many times at Addington Stadium.

The Chiefs on the other hand are without pedigree. They don't have a shared history of success to fall back on.

With a new coaching staff and several new additions to their squad, this season could easily have been written off as a transition year.

After their week-one home loss to the Highlanders, "transition" seemed too kind.

But last week has been cause for a recalibration of expectations.

With the scale of the inquest into the Blues, you could be forgiven for thinking the Chiefs were not involved in Hamilton last Friday.

The Blues might not have been great - they might even have been "unacceptable" in the words of their own chief executive - but the home side deserve some credit.

In miserable conditions, they looked capable of scoring every time they strung some possession together.

They might not be a team that is ever going to dish out lessons at the breakdown, but if they get parity at scrum or lineout time and don't clock off in the collision area, their backs are going to lay waste to some good teams.

A win against the Crusaders would not suddenly install them as favourites to make the playoffs - there's far too much rugby to be played between now and late July - but in its own way it could be season-defining.

At the very least it will give them and their fans something that hasn't been in huge supply in the past two barren years - hope.