'Lucky loser' Chiefs not complacent, says coach McMillan
Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan says his team's guaranteed place in Super Rugby Pacific's semifinals next weekend played no part in their shock qualifier loss to the Blues last night.
As the competition's top seeds, the Chiefs could not fail to progress under the competition's new 'lucky loser' concept, but McMillan said that did not factor into his team's thinking.
"No, not at all,'' he said after his team's 20-19 defeat. "We wanted to win this game and put the Blues to be bed, because, you know, wins like this will just fuel more confidence.
"It's always what is directly in front of us. I think we have been pretty consistent with that, and our preparation, the effort we put in tonight was reflective of a team that really wanted to win.''
The Chiefs, who lost loose forward Luke Jacobson to a pre-existing shoulder injury the day before the game, had most of the other advantages at Waikato Stadium.
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Blues hooker Ricky Riccitelli was yellow carded in the first half for a foot trip on Damian McKenzie, and the Chiefs enjoyed a wealth of possession and territory in running up a 19-6 lead.
However, their lineout began malfunctioning in the second half along with their disciplinary record.
With halfback Cortez Ratima one of several players to lose the ball near or over the line, the mistakes came back to haunt the Chiefs.
"That's good old fashioned finals grind, you know?" McMillan said.
"And probably in the last 15, 20 minutes, we struggled to exit probably off the back of a misfiring lineout. A few discipline issues, especially in the last little bit.
'We always respect the Blues. They haven't always been at their best [this season] but you always had the sense that they would do enough to get in the top six.'
Not surprisingly, the Blues celebrated wildly after Beauden Barrett's conversion of Josh Beehre's late try sealed the victory, but head coach Vern Cotter and skipper Patrick Tuipulotu appeared relatively downbeat when facing the media afterwards.
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Blues playmaker Beauden Barrett catches the ball in his team's victory over the Chiefs. (Source: Photosport)
'There's a lot of satisfaction but it's tempered by the fact that it's just one game and there's another one next week,' Cotter said, before adding: 'I think our defence showed the team hasn't lost faith in what we're doing.'
The Blues, beaten in the grand final by the Crusaders in 2022, went close against the red and blacks in Christchurch in April and know how difficult it will be on Friday.
'The Crusaders are a tough team. We know it's going to be tough to win down there… we've got to be on top of our game," Cotter said. "It may come down to the 85th minute again next week.'
The Crusaders' 32-12 qualifier victory over the Reds last Friday means they are now 30-0 in home playoff matches.
'One day they will lose down there in a playoff,' Tuipulotu said. 'Could it be us? We'll certainly be pushing as hard as we can.
'I'm looking forward to it. What better way of making our way to the final.'
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The Chiefs will host the Brumbies in the other semifinal on Saturday night after the men from Canberra beat the Hurricanes 35-28 in their qualifying final.
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This year was an "anomaly" with eight students returning to school because it was difficult for young people to find employment in the region. Of the eight students who started out the year, two have since left school. "We've not gone out to keep these boys at school just for rugby. That's not what we're about - we're a school, we're an academic institution. We're not a rugby club," he said. "[The students] are all in an academic programme and some of that includes through our Gateway and our Trades Academy trying to find work for those people. "At the moment, I guess because of the climate, it's a lot harder to find that work. And when you look at the age of these boys, all under 18, some of them are just not really mature enough to enter the workforce, so we'll try and find ways to keep them in school so we can try and help get them into employment when they do leave." Dunn said he understands the argument that the sixth year students could be blocking the pathway for other players to experience first XV rugby, but he did not think it was fair to deny the year 14 boys the opportunity to participate in all areas of school life. The school's first XV has already been in the spotlight this season after making international headlines following a try-scoring stunt in their narrow 28-26 win over neighbouring rivals Nelson College. The controversy occurred in the 33rd minute of the match when Marlborough were awarded a penalty shot in front of the posts, and the ball was placed on the kicking tee for a shot at goal. As the Nelson team huddled behind the posts, the penalty taker side-footed the ball to the left corner, which was chased down by his Falcons teammate, who dotted down in the corner. After a lengthy discussion between the referees, the try was awarded. The footage quickly went viral, with former international rugby referee Nigel Owens weighing in on the legality of the try. The incident also re-ignited another debate over the merits of broadcasting schoolboy rugby games. The match was Sky Sport's first live televised first XV match after a two-year hiatus, which was brought about in large part due to schools raising concerns about players being exposed to an unhealthy level of scrutiny. Some schools - notably those involved in Auckland's 1A competition - have elected not to allow Sky to broadcast its games due to player welfare concerns. Dunn said the furore that erupted after the school's win over Nelson has made him question whether televising secondary school sport "is the right way to go". "It's definitely had an impact on a couple of our players," he said. "There's the pressure for these boys to perform, which can be both positive and negative. The TV and the media can put these boys in the spotlight when they have a good game, but if they don't have a good game or they make a decision that the public don't agree with, then the keyboard warriors come out, and with the power of social media, it gets pretty nasty. "The person I feel the most sorry for is the referee because they're giving up their time to adjudicate the game and one decision which whether it's right or wrong, they get crucified for." Grocott, the principal of Shirley Boys' High School, said he believes in general the temperature around schoolboy rugby in the South Island is cooling. "I think there's now a growing understanding that secondary school sport is a byproduct of being at school and getting an education, and that is our core function. We are there to educate and sport is a by-product of it, it's a fantastic by-product but we are not here to develop professional athletes," he said. "In terms of what I would call school behaviour, there's a few outliers around exploiting the rules around poaching and this year 14 issue, but in general it is improving. For those schools you have to ask what they are trying to achieve here? Are they interested in educating young people? Or are they looking to win rugby competitions and market their school on that basis? And I think where the challenge lies is finding that perspective." The furore in the South Island competition comes as School Sport NZ - the organisation that governs high school sport - is currently reviewing its eligibility rules for secondary schools events in 2026. Mike Summerell, chief executive of School Sport NZ, declined to be interviewed for this story, but said the organisation is hoping to have a draft go out to schools for final consultation in the coming days. As reported by RNZ earlier this year, School Sport NZ is weighing up a blanket year 14 ban at national secondary schools events after the issue erupted in rowing. In January, schools voted overwhelmingly in favour of a rule change for the Maadi Regatta , making students returning for their sixth year of high school ineligible to compete in the prestigious event. The move was engineered by a group of around 60 high school principals from across the country who, concerned the practice had become "a black mark" on the sport, called for a special general meeting to vote through a change to the eligibility rules for the event. The vote forced School Sport NZ to make a hasty change to its own rules, carving out a separate clause for rowing. Summerell told RNZ back in February that the "year 14 issue" is something that officials are looking at closely after receiving a number of submissions from principals pushing for the ban to be implemented across all "championship level" secondary schools events. He said widespread changes to the rules would have to be weighed up against the positive effects of sport being a vehicle to keeping young people engaged in education. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
