KEY POINTS:
Get smart, and no, not Maxwell (kids ask your parents).
If the Chiefs are to justify a rising tide of optimism on their prospects of - whisper it - making their first Super rugby final, or going one better, they need to beef up their rugby intelligence.
There's
other things that will be handy, like winning matches and staying healthy, but for experienced flanker Marty Holah - at 30 the Chiefs' most-capped player - it's cutting out those costly short-circuit moments.
The keys for this season will be "patience, and being a bit smarter on the field," said Holah, who will start his 70th game for the Chiefs tomorrow.
"In the last couple of years, some of our smartness and intelligence is probably what's let us down.
"The last two times we've played the Brumbies, we've had them in winning situations and should have nailed it in the last 20 minutes."
Funny he should mention the Brumbies, as that's who the Chiefs face first up in Hamilton. Two years ago, it was a 28-all draw; last year a 28-26 loss, both in Canberra.
After the Brumbies, they're home to last year's beaten finalists the Hurricanes before hitting the road for three games in South Africa. That's a suitable time for a break, and that's when the Chiefs have their bye.
The Chiefs have only once made the semifinals in 11 years, in 2004. That was Ian Foster's first year as coach, when they were beaten by ... the Brumbies. Maybe it's a coincidence, but things began well that year.
"It seemed to kick our season off. It seemed to give the boys confidence and the whole season flowed from there.
"In the last two seasons, we've had a bit of a stutter and it's taken us to midway through to get things going, but by then we were behind the 8-ball really."
The prospects are good for the Waikato franchise despite three players being on All Black reconditioning duty - backs Sitiveni Sivivatu, Byron Kelleher and Mils Muliaina.
There's an obvious downside to that, but conversely it leaves the pack untouched and, based around Waikato's winning Air New Zealand Cup squad of just over three months ago, there should be a strong vein of confidence up front.
One didn't necessarily flow onto the other, warned Holah.
"In 2002, we had one of our best NPCs in a long time, and made the final. Then we had one of our worst Super 12 campaigns in 2003 (finishing 10th).
"What it does give you is a base to work from, and if we try to advance on ideas we had in the cup, we can come up with a recipe that'll work for us."
In pre-season, the Chiefs beat the Hurricanes and the Blues. There's no points accrued from those games, but there is at least some decent intelligence to be gathered on how well they are travelling ahead of the important stuff.
These days the country's best rugby players don't get much down time. Training began around mid-November and Holah reckoned his two weeks off round Christmas "whizzed by". They have had a heavy workload in the past few weeks. It's a tough way to spend the summer.
"But mentally we're all pretty fresh and looking forward to the start of the campaign.
"It's nice to get the opportunity to put some of the hard work we've done over the last month into action."
Holah said the vibe within the squad was strong. There's no counting chickens just yet but "the guys know we've got the talent pool within the team to pull it off".
"We're thinking if we can nail these first two games, anything is possible," he said, perhaps thinking back to 2004. "We've worked really hard, and we feel in good physical shape to really compete with anyone."
