The Chiefs have booked a spot in this year's Super Rugby Pacific semi-finals after imposing their physicality on an error-ridden Waratahs outfit in Hamilton on Saturday.
In the first of three quarter-finals on Saturday, the Chiefs took down the Waratahs 39-15 as they watched the new South Wales side self-destruct through handling errors and poor goal kicking.
Despite the Chiefs jumping out to an early lead via a penalty from Bryn Gatland and crisp set-piece try to Brad Weber, momentum early in the match was with the visitors as they managed to pin the hosts in their own half.
The territory and possession allowed for the Waratahs to strike back soon after through Dylan Pietsch before they set up camp once more and began to earn penalties against a frustrated Chiefs outfit.
While it took Tane Edmed two penalty attempts to convert on the dominant opening, he eventually found the middle of the posts to tie the score up at 10-a-piece after the opening quarter of the match.
It all went downhill from their for the Waratahs.
Spurred on by countless cow bells in the Waikato Stadium stands, the Chiefs didn't take long to get back in front as a penalty shortly after the restart gave them a lineout 5m from the Waratahs' line.
Moments later, Jacobson was in off a solid maul and again the Chiefs were back in front with a quickfire attack.
The Waratahs remained much more methodical with their attacks, working the ball left and right as they waited for the Chiefs' impatience to surface again. However the gameplan hit a slight snag with Edmed struggling to read the Waikato winds and missing a second penalty.
That gave the Chiefs the breathing room they needed to settle into the contest and with it started to enforce their physicality on the visitors, winning the contact at the breakdown both on attack and defence.
With momentum swinging the other way, the pressure appeared to be hitting the Waratahs hard as they struggled to get out of their own half unless they kicked the ball away.
That led to the Waratahs making a costly error as Alex Nankivell pounced on a ball dropped cold by the visitors inside their own 22 to extend the lead and a Gatland penalty on halftime made it 27-10.
The Chiefs continued to impose their physicality after the break but after doing all the hard yards to get within five metres of the Waratahs line, a handling error instead allowed the visitors to go 90 metres the other way and make it a 12-point game six minutes into the second half.
It set the tempo, or rather a lack thereof, for the second half as both sides struggled to control the ball for extended periods despite mounting threatening attacks at either end of Waikato Stadium.
A majority of the mistakes were coming from the Waratahs though who had managed to get the game back inside the Chiefs' half for an extended period for the first time since their dominant start to the match.
Unlike the opening 20 though, they simply couldn't find points as the Chiefs' more-disciplined defence - and their own handling errors - left the scoreboard at 27-15 ticking into the final quarter of the game.
The game was effectively sealed with another error as Weber went in for a second off a superb team try that came from a Waratahs penalty after their ball-runner ran into his own teammate illegally.
With a final try to Pita Gus Sowakula in the dying minutes of the game, the Chiefs punched their ticket to the semi-finals where they will meet a much-tidier and more physical Crusaders outfit.
Chiefs 39 [Brad Weber 2, Luke Jacobson, Alex Nankivell, Pita Gus Sowakula tries; Bryn Gatland 4 con, 2 pen]
Waratahs 15 [Dylan Pietsch, Will Harris tries, Tane Edmed 1 con, 1 pen]
HT: 27-10
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