Rugby: Chiefs left wanting more despite score

Stephen Donald steps away from Lions defenders. Photo / Getty Images

It says everything about the ambition of the Chiefs that they scored nine tries yesterday, took a bonus point win and trudged off disappointed.

They were happy with the points - this is the Chiefs, the competition's notorious slow starters. But the final 15 minutes in Johannesburg left coach Ian Foster and his troops with more to think about than they would have liked.

"I think it says everything about where we are as a team that we can score 72 points and be disappointed," said Foster. "The Lions played very good football in the first 20 minutes and we came back nicely before halftime.

"In the 20 minutes after halftime, we played some really good rugby and won the game but we hit the wall physically and were guilty of a mental lapse.

"That was disappointing."

The source of that disappointment was not so much the points conceded - the Lions surged back from being 72-25 behind - it was the lack of discipline.

The Chiefs picked up three yellow cards - one wrongly brandished to Richard Kahui for an infringement by Tim Nanai Williams.

"The ref apologised to me after the game," revealed Kahui. "I was 10 minutes in the bin and they scored three tries. We have got to be able to adapt to the referee and we weren't very good at that tonight."

Even now, just two weeks into the competition, it is apparent that 'adapting to the referee' is going to be the mantra of most teams. The officials are not going to budge on their stance of tougher interpretations - those are here to stay.

If the players thought this was a storm that would pass, then they will have to re-think.

The game is going to be cleaned up around the tackled ball area and attacking rugby is going to be given its head. Whether a scoreline of 72-65 confirms that, Foster wasn't too sure.

His preference would be for these types of games to be kept to a minimum. In total, there were 18 tries and 137 points, both of which are Super Rugby records.

With the points coming in a deluge and space to be found all over the field, it was exactly the sort of game that gave Super 12 rugby a bad name in the early days.

Back then, the Northern Hemisphere branded it 'pyjama rugby' and claimed it was full contact basketball.

"These sorts of games are not totally foreign, I guess," said Foster. "We had one last year where I think we beat the Blues 63-31 and the game tonight was a bit like that.

"It was at altitude and the fatigue factor helped them. I don't think this was a usual sort of game."

Rugby's administrators will be hoping the same thing. It was too loose and unstructured for too long to be considered compelling.

What did stand out was the class of Kahui who scored a hat-trick. The All Black centre declared himself content with his work, although he felt there was much he still had to do, especially on defence.

Kahui just edged Stephen Donald for man-of-the-match with the first five scoring a handy 32 points.

The biggest thing, though, is the nine points the Chiefs have on the table. They face the Force in Perth next weekend sitting in an unusual position near the top of the table so early in the competition.

Lions: 65 (C Grobbelaar, T Clever, C Spencer, W Mjekevu 3, D le Grange, T Chavhanga, J Lombaard tries; E Rose 7 cons, 2 pens)
Chiefs: 72 (L Messam, J Poluleuligaga, S Donald, S Sivivatu, C Bruce, R Kahui 3, B Leonard tries; Donald 9 cons, 3 pens). HT 25-27.