Say what you will about Anthony Tahana, but make sure you mention his magnificent sense of the occasion.
With perfect timing and intrepid cheek, the scuttling wing made sure the Chiefs enjoyed a successful debut at Blue Chip Stadium on Saturday night, swamping a back-pedaling Stormers outfit 30-20.
It won't be enough to save their season. By scoring only three tries and with games against the Hurricanes and Waratahs to come, the Hamilton-based franchise can kiss the playoffs goodbye.
But two of those three tries went to 28-year-old Tahana, his first points for the Chiefs in his debut season, as his career continues its late bloom.
"I haven't been in the (playing) 22 for a lot of the time so keeping mentally focused has been tough," Tahana admitted. "Fortunately for me Mark Ranby pulled his hammy this week so I got the call up.
"It was awesome to score two tries at home a pretty proud moment for me especially as we needed those tries."
The Bay of Plenty wing began his epic adventures two years ago when he scored the match-winning Ranfurly Shield try and played a big part in helping Bay into the NPC semifinals that year where he scored two tries against Canterbury.
Chuck in his cameo against the Lions in Rotorua last year and Saturday's efforts added further lustre to an already gleaming resume.
What made his tries sweeter were the timing _ his first came with the Chiefs trailing 17-10 midway through the second half, carving off the blindside wing and slicing through midfield to score under the posts.
His second sealed the game for the home side when he collected one of Stephen Donald's few successful tactical kicks and bolted in from out wide with a minute to go.
"We knew if we had them close with 20 minutes to go, we could open up with our skills and running game, and fortunately we did. We're getting better as we get into the season whereas a lot of other teams find their wheels fall off."
With Tahana's Steamers teammate Nili Latu scoring the other Chiefs try, the local twinkling helped light up an otherwise drab night.
The Stormers, so pitiful against the Blues last week, were actually far more inventive than their opposition, and in flanker Schalk Burger and second-five Jean de Villiers possess pockets of world-class.
Their second try _ after de Villiers had opened the account and Latu replied _ was breath-taking. Latu punched forward from a Chiefs maul to within a metre of the Stormers line late in the first half, but lost the ball in his lunge.
Stormers wing Rayno Benjamin popped up with it, and bolted down the sideline. With the Chiefs cover coming in the form of Sitiveni Sivivatu, Benjamin unloaded the ball with great haste to his fullback Tonderai Chavhanga looming up alongside.
Sivivatu isn't known for his flat-footed docility, but within seconds he'd given up the chase as the extraordinary Chavhanga blasted past him, racing 60m to score.
Sadly, it was all too typical of a Chiefs game. Brimming with talent, and despite taking away the points, once again it was left to the opposition to provide the highlights.
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