Damian McKenzie of the Chiefs and Beauden Barrett of the Blues at last night's game. Photo: Jeremy Ward
Opinion - The Chiefs really are living up to their name this year, currently ruling the Super Rugby Pacific table after a 20-13 win over the Blues last night.
Despite a second half that only saw two penalty goals kicked, the game was an intriguing watch - but not just in the context of the competition.
There were a myriad of mini battles across the field that had All Black implications. Seventeen test players took the field and while it's unlikely any spots would have been decided on just this one head-to-head clash, the game certainly had a bit more edge to it because of the pressure to present strong cases to the selectors.
Let's just say some were stronger than others.
The most talked about was at openside, with All Black captain Sam Cane up against Blues skipper Dalton Papalii.
While they kind of cancelled each other out - both men carried well and put in defensive shifts that we expect of them - the key difference here was decision making. Cane is co-captain of the Chiefs with Brad Weber, but however the two delegate decisions worked perfectly as crucial points on offer were taken. This is the sort of thing that leading a test side teaches.
Weber had a fight of his own against the man who essentially took his spot for most of last year.
Finlay Christie's elevation was a slightly odd call, not because the Blues halfback isn't talented, more that he is a very similar player to the consistent Weber but with far less experience. Their match up last night was decided by one bone-headed play by Christie, flying late into a prone Damian McKenzie that robbed the Blues of a much-needed five-metre scrum.
While it's unlikely that McKenzie will seriously be in contention to replace Beauden Barrett or Richie Mo'unga at first five permanently this test season, he certainly showed that he is up to the task if either goes down. In fact, while McKenzie blotted his copybook by sending a goal line restart out on the full, Barrett came off second best anyway.
The two-time World Player of the Year looked just a tad off the pace and bombed a try by carelessly stepping on the dead ball line*. His goal kicking was atrocious too, landing only one easy penalty.
To be fair, the one effective thing Barrett did was an accidental and very painful looking knee to Cane's private parts that forced the Chiefs' co-captain from the field.
Two of the most talked about players in Super Rugby Pacific 2023 lined up at fullback, with Shaun Stevenson having a quiet game with ball in hand by his standards but still able to set up Emoni Narawa'a's second try. Stevenson did, however, pull off a stunning tackle on Papalii over the line to deny the Blues a second half try, which was just as helpful for his cause as the number of tries he's scored this season.
His opposite, Stephen Perofeta, had a night to forget, though.
A couple of bad handling errors in his 22 handed the Chiefs prime attacking opportunities, and he was unceremoniously turned over in a double tackle by Brodie Retallick and Samipeni Finau. Perofeta would have done well to grab the kicking tee off Barrett before the game started as well.
The one area where the Blues can hold their heads up was the scrum, winning a string of penalties and doing Nepo Laulala no harm at all. There might just be a bit of room for Cameron Suafoa to at least get into the conversation, he is obviously highly rated at the Blues and has started in all their big games so far this year.
But the one player who probably did the most to enhance his reputation was Hoskins Sotutu, who is clearly loving the new rule around halfbacks being unable to defend beyond the channel of the scrum. The Blues number eight has been consistently good in their big games so far and is putting his name forward in an increasingly congested loose forward picture.
*It's ridiculous that the Blues were awarded a penalty (which they subsequently scored off) after Barrett's blunder, too. Surely, he'd used up the advantage by literally taking the ball over the tryline?!
