“That was one we had to get back,” the Crusaders No 8 told Sky Sport.
“For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been trying to see who the man in the mirror is and we came down here with that sort of mentality. It set us up well to come here and reveal our true character, and I think the boys showed it tonight.”
For a moment, things looked set to continue in worrying ways for Rob Penney’s side after they fell behind by two tries inside 10 minutes.
A poor lineout throw from Crusaders hooker George Bell deep in his own territory sailed over his target and into the arms of Chiefs counterpart Samisoni Taukei’aho, who got his side close to the line. A few phases later, midfielder Quinn Tupaea stretched over.
Moments later, the Crusaders let in an early frontrunner for try of the season as they couldn’t make a tackle and the Chiefs went end-to-end and eventually scored through fullback Etene Nanai-Seturo.
Bell atoned in the 19th minute when he ran through an attempted tackle from All Blacks flanker Simon Parker as if he wasn’t there on his way to the tryline, but that was soon cancelled out by a try to Taukei’aho.
But in a half with plenty of feeling – the sides taking every opportunity to give the other a serve and being spoken to by referee James Dolman a number of times about the niggle – there was more yet to come.
Tries through halfback Noah Hotham and No 8 Lio-Willie and a penalty from first five-eighths Taha Kemara saw the visitors take an unlikely lead into the break at 24-21.
The second half followed a different script.
It took until the 73rd minute and a Crusaders yellow card before the Chiefs scored another point, as the visitors took over after the break.
Two tries to Lio-Willie, separated by one to No 12 David Havili, put the Crusaders out to a massive lead, and while the Chiefs made the most of their numbers advantage through the final 10 minutes, the defending champions finally opened their account for the new season.
“I thought we started off pretty slow, to be fair,” Havili told Sky Sport.
“We got into our work in the second half, and the physicality we brought in the second half was what we wanted. A few things to work on around the first half but extremely stoked to come away with a big win.”
Chiefs 33 (Quinn Tupaea, Etene Nanai-Seturo, Samisoni Taukei’aho, Tupou Vaa’i, Emoni Narawa tries; Josh Jacomb 4 cons)
Crusaders 43 (Christian Lio-Willie 3, George Bell, Noah Hotham, David Havili tries; Taha Kemara 4 cons, pen, Chay Fihaki con)
HT: 21-24
