A good season for the Chiefs has often meant something relatively trivial like winning more games than they lost. Starting badly and finishing with a pointless roar was their speciality.
All that changed with an enormous bang in 2012, when the Chiefs stormed to the franchise's first Super 15 title under a new coaching team led by Dave Rennie.
They smashed the Sharks 37-6 in the final at Waikato Stadium after a 12-win, four-loss regular season in which they finished second behind the Stormers before pipping the Crusaders in a tense semifinal. This represented a dramatic turnaround for a team thrashed in their only previous final.
Rennie - who had shown his potential at lowly Manawatu - was assisted by veteran test coach Wayne Smith. Officially the defence and counter-attack co-ordinator, Smith also gave Rennie a built-in mentor in what turned out to be a brilliantly conceived combo.
