Of all the players leaving the Chiefs, the one who has made the most impact has been Craig Clarke, a player who in Dave Rennie's opinion should have been an All Black last year.

For Dave Rennie, the nerves will start as soon as he arrives at Waikato Stadium tonight.

Editorial: The Super 15 is a long, hard slog, especially for New Zealand teams that have to play each other twice on the road to the play-offs.

With one game left in the season you'd expect the number of decisions to be made by Herald Rugby Fantasy managers to decrease - but there are still plenty of moves to be considered before the Chiefs and Brumbies clash in Hamilton.

Here it is in black and white: during the regular season the Chiefs won the least amount of possession of any other team.

Chiefs fans are struggling to find merchandise, clothing and even red, black and yellow balloons with Hamilton fully in the grip of Super Rugby finals fever.

A scalper has come under fire from Chiefs fans for inflating ticket prices to this weekend's Super 15 final.

Chiefs coach Dave Rennie has beefed up security at his home so he can concentrate on the big game this Saturday.

Defending champions have put in the hard yards and have shown they are ready to grab consecutive titles.

All Black great Sir Colin Meads says Super rugby defending champions the Chiefs aren't getting the respect they deserve but it probably doesn't worry them too much.

Hamilton is getting set for its biggest night of the year when the Chiefs host the Brumbies for their second Super 15 rugby grand final appearance at home in two years.

There's a sense of the Chiefs being on track to be the dominant force in Super Rugby.

On a night when the future of Super Rugby was cast into doubt, the Chiefs showed they were a team for the present, downing the Crusaders in a semifinal thriller.

There's no doubt about it now, the Chiefs are New Zealand's new legacy franchise after their thrilling 20-19 win over the Crusaders tonight.

Watch a replay of our live blog from tonight's Super Rugby semi final between the Chiefs and the Crusaders from Waikato Stadium.

The "dream team" label is hawked around sporting circles. We've heard it for the Blues but it might more aptly be applied to those who have been guiding the Chiefs.

What is shaping up as an epic semifinal deserves a similarly gigantic subplot.

The swagger has come from the Crusaders, the stagger from the Chiefs.

The Chiefs will be without the injured Tim Nanai-Williams when they take on the rapidly improving Crusaders' midfield in Saturday's Super rugby semifinal.

The Chiefs are aware of the awakening monster that is the Crusaders forward pack but are confident they have the personnel to combat it

Sonny Bill Williams was ushered into the Chiefs' Eden Park changing room on Saturday night to celebrate their victory over the Blues.

A year from now and who will recall that the Blues, reduced to 14 men for most of the game and 13 for a period, played so gamely and effectively against such monumental odds?

There was an edge to training at the Chiefs' Ruakura headquarters this week, according to coach Dave Rennie, but it didn't quite translate to Eden Park last night.

The Chiefs have squeezed past a 14-man Blues side to go top of the Super 15 table, winning 26-16 at Eden Park