The Hurricanes are about to test their unbeaten record in this year’s Super Rugby Pacific competition against a side in the Chiefs who ran riot over Moana Pasifika last weekend with a strike weapon not quite at 100% fitness.
Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan today admitted that while wing Emoni Narawa scored two tries in the 68-12 win over Moana in Hamilton last weekend, the All Black, invalided out of the World Cup due to a back problem, was only now hitting top speed.
“He’s looked pretty good,” McMillan said of Narawa.
“He obviously got a couple of meat pies last week which is always nice for an outside back.
“He’s still working his way back to 100% fitness after a pretty serious injury. You probably would have seen at times over the last week that he didn’t open up fully, I guess that’s him being a little bit on the conservative side. We’ve seen him open up at training and maybe we'll see that this weekend.”
The Chiefs have lost twice this year – a shock loss to the Reds and once against the Crusaders in Christchurch (after beating the defending champions in round one) – but possess the form first-five of the competition in Damian McKenzie and an all-round game that will put pressure on the Hurricanes.
However, McMillan said the Hurricanes had considerably improved their set piece, an area of weakness in the past.
“It’s an area were a lot of teams used to have a go at them, but it’s become a real weapon for them,” he said.
Despite the Chiefs’ two defeats, they remain one of the hot favourites to claim their first title since 2013 under former coach Dave Rennie.
And with their female counterparts the Manawa making the Super Rugby Aupiki final against the Blues at Eden Park on Saturday, the Mooloos remain on track for the double.
Asked what the secret to creating a culture of success was, McMillan said: “Just people. We’ve got good people in the organisation, right from the top of the food chain to the youngest players.
“They come into this environment with what we’d like to think is a sense of belonging – not just here to play but as part of a higher purpose and that’s giving a good account of ourselves on and off the field. Generally, if you do that the rugby performances take care of themselves.”
Winning championships was not quite as easy, though.
“There’s one team [Crusaders] that seems to have made it easy over the last seven years and the rest of us have been searching for the secret ingredient – it’s just hard work and a little bit of luck, I think.”
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