Super Rugby semifinals: Chiefs’ tough quarter-final win over Reds perfect preparation

Damian McKenzie scored 19 points off the tee in the Chiefs' quarter-final win. Photo / Getty Images

A nervous watch against the Queensland Reds was exactly what Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan expected.

It’s a comment that might raise a few eyebrows looking at the points table, where the Chiefs finished as the competition’s top seed and the Reds snuck into the playoffs with the lowest seed, but the numbers don’t paint the full picture.

The Reds accounted for the lone loss in the Chiefs season and, despite the top seed fielding several players who didn’t feature in that defeat, there were no illusions as to what awaited them on the turf in Hamilton.

Even with the Reds missing a host of players due to injury, McMillan got what he expected in the Chiefs’ comeback 29-20 win – and his team will be far better for it.

“They’re a better team than what the points table has shown and, for whatever reason, when they play us they seem to grow another leg,” McMillan said of the Reds.

“Just the way that they play makes it a real grind, so certainly a few grey hairs there, but I’m really proud of the last 15 minutes when we went down and got direct. We were able to build phase counts, we were able to score points when it mattered, and we won the game. That’s all that matters.”

In a match Chiefs captain Sam Cane said was “a bit of a funny game to play”, there were 95 kicks in play as the sides jostled for field position. The Chiefs have kicked the ball more than any other team in the competition this season, but it was an abnormally high count as the Reds countered in kind.

But between all that, the collisions were crunching, and the intensity was high from start to finish as the consequence of not executing was magnified.

The Reds outscored the Chiefs three tries to two – with two of those being a result of pinpoint 50/22 kicks – but the hosts’ willingness to take the points on offer from penalties that were awarded near the posts saw them home.

Throughout the season, the Chiefs had an average winning margin of 18 points per game and only two of their 14 regular season affairs were decided by fewer than 10 points, so to have a match like Saturday night brought an added benefit.

“Everybody including all of our fans would have loved us to have run away with the game, but I reckon we’ll learn more from this,” McMillan said. “Being a quarter-final and having to find a way against a pretty tough team and being able to do that; if we won by 20 points, I think our week might have looked a little bit different next week.

“This will just bring a bit of an edge and a realness around finals footy and sometimes it’s not going to be pretty but you just have to get the job done.”

McMillan said their preparation for the Brumbies on Saturday would look different than if they had won by a big margin.

“Just sharpening the mind, knowing that we’re in the death zone – you play well, you get the points and you survive or you don’t and then you’re out.”