Rugby: Slowburning Chiefs plan to finish on a high

Chiefs coach Ian Foster says pre-season form is no indicator of Super 14 finishing positions. Photo / Getty Images

It's a strange world the Chiefs occupy.

For so long fighting for credibility, the Chiefs first found resiliency under the tutelage of John Mitchell before seven-year coach Ian Foster started adding layers of sophistication. An attractive and popular side, the Chiefs went all the way to last year's final before falling in a screaming heap to the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld.

With such a settled squad, the natural assumption would be that the Chiefs were primed to take it one step further. Wrong. This year, the Chiefs have been largely written off. The Crusaders, Bulls, Hurricanes, Brumbies and Sharks have all caught the eye of the oddsmakers ahead of the Hamilton-based outfit. Perhaps it's the underwhelming pre-season form of the Chiefs - losses to the Highlanders, Blues and Hurricanes - but as Foster has admitted, the Chiefs are notoriously slow starters and there is little correlation between pre-season and Super 14 finishing positions.

"We've gone through a pre-season where we've deliberately tried a few things a little bit outside our normal formula."

He said there was a temptation to adopt a more stolid approach and work on building the combinations that will do the bulk of the work this season, but "we quite deliberately haven't overplayed too many people".

The reason for this is the Chiefs, who are expecting sweltering conditions in Durban, Johannesburg and Perth before they return home, are wary about over-taxing their players at this early stage of the season when the attrition rate is usually high. Foster refused to put an acceptable win-loss ratio on the tour, but on talent alone the Chiefs should dispose of the Lions and Force without too many concerns. The Sharks, too, should not hold many fears after a troubled build-up lowlighted by the long-term back injury to first five-eighths Juan Martin Hernandez.

But then again, this is the Chiefs, sans Mils Muliaina, who each season get out of the gates like a Clydesdale in a race full of thoroughbreds.

"The key is to play well," Foster said. "That's the first challenge. In those [hot] conditions it will be interesting to see the quality of the game.

"Primarily we want to build on our game. It's not just about scoring points, it's about building momentum."

There would be plenty who would beg to differ. Scoring points is, after all, the fundamental difference between winning and not winning.

You can see where Foster is coming from though; he wants it to be known that the Chiefs are in this for the long haul, that the first few weeks are important but it's not as if their season is over if they drop a game or two. The Chiefs aim to be playing their best rugby on May 29, not February 13. Perhaps then they will get the respect they crave and (probably) deserve.

PLAYER TO WATCH: LIAM MESSAM

There's a bit of time to go before we can draw the line under this but the All Black jersey appears to be the closest thing to kryptonite as far as the Chiefs talented loosie is concerned. The wow-factor skills and Energiser bunny workrate he displays for the franchise are replaced by diffidence and sloppiness at international level.

Is he a six? Too small say the critics. An eight? not robust enough. An openside flanker? Not committed enough to the breakdown.

So Messam lives in a twilight world between positions; an excellent player who does not quite excel in one position.

He's a crucial part of the Chiefs set-up though, and he takes comfort from that. Messam might not have found a way of taking his skills to the next level, but over the next four months he can at least show he's trying.