Rugby: 10 things the Chiefs did right

Mils Muliaina. Photo / Getty Images

Waikato-based Super 14 finalists have a steep hill to climb against the rampant Bulls in South Africa this weekend, but the New Zealand team carry in plenty of positives.

1 Backed their Super coach

It wouldn't be a Super Rugby season without widespread calls for Ian Foster's head.

Even the current campaign, which began in traditional fashion with three straight losses, wasn't exempt. Dissatisfaction with Foster's extended tenure peaked in 2006/07 when Waikato's other favourite coaching son, Warren Gatland, swanned into town and promptly took the Mooloos to a national title in spectacular style.

The recently reappointed Foster's Chiefs followed that success by losing the first four matches of their'07 campaign. But they rallied to win seven and draw one of their remaining nine games, Foster survived and Gatland departed to become Welsh rugby's latest, greatest redeemer.

But Foster's results have never been bad enough to justify dismissal. In his six seasons in charge the Chiefs have posted a 43-29-2 record, never finishing in the bottom half of the table.

The Blues, in contrast, have won just 40 matches over that span and finished in the bottom half three times despite enjoying significantly greater resources.

But Foster had never truly answered charges his teams couldn't rise above mid-table mediocrity and it would have been easy to bin him. Instead, the Chiefs stuck with their man and as a result they now have a wily, veteran coach who has learned from the past and continues to improve.

2 New kids on the block

With old stagers Jono Gibbes and Tom Willis and three of the 2008 squad's props all departing, the Chiefs faced a major job retooling their pack. They succeeded brilliantly.

Newly minted All Black hooker Hika Elliot and Wellington fetcher Serge Lilo were the gems in the draft class and the Chiefs snared both.

Experienced Otago halfback Toby Morland completed the shrewd draft dabble, Sona Taumalolo's signing and loan back to Hawkes Bay was a clever manipulation of the rules and emerging Bay of Plenty prop James McGougan proved a revelation.

3 Captain fantastic

The All Blacks fullback inherited the captaincy duties from the oft-crocked Jono Gibbes in 2008.

Letting him keep the job was a no-brainer.

One of the most respected figures in the game, Mils Muliaina proved a calming presence both on and off the pitch.

The booze-related dramas that have afflicted other sides have been conspicuous by their absence at the Chiefs, while on the field they have mirrored their leader, never looking anything but completely composed.

4 Honestly, we're no chance ...

The 2008 Chiefs had a well-balanced squad, a favourable draw and went into the season rating their chances. That optimism proved misplaced, with the campaign derailing badly after a swag of injuries to key players.

The mass exodus of tight forwards that followed prompted a coded warning from Foster not to expect too much this year.

The coach indicated 2009 would be largely a rebuilding year and that caution seemed well founded when the set piece disintegrated against the Waratahs in round two.

But that meltdown proved to be the exception rather than the rule. The injuries that had blighted previous seasons never arrived, with the Chiefs benefiting from replacing injury-prone veterans with too many miles on the clock with a younger, fresher, hungrier brigade.

5 Rotation, rotation, rotation

If the Chiefs learned one thing from 2008 it was that burnout must be avoided at all costs.

If they were going to contend at the business end of the season, they needed their best players on the park. That said, rotating in a bunch of dirt trackers for a trip to Invercargill was still a ballsy call.

With just one win in four matches, another defeat would have ended their season before the halfway point. But that didn't stop Foster starting Toby Morland, James Wilson and Jackson Willison in a heavily rejigged backline.

Wilson pulled a hamstring after a couple of minutes and wasn't sighted again but Morland and Willison logged valuable game-time and a Lelia Masaga special saw the Chiefs home.

6 Getting most out of (not so) Big Man

Dubbed the "Human Wrecking Ball", blockbusting No 8 Sione Lauaki had a habit of fronting for pre-season training looking more like the Marshmallow Man.

"Hitting the ground running" might be overstating the case, but this year Lauaki at least hit terra firma at a steady trot. While he still drifts in and out of games, he has also done his share of sauntering over would-be tacklers.

A perfect foil for the quicker, more skilful loosies around him, Lauaki is an X-factor player capable of winning a game with a virtuoso individual performance. That said, his poor workrate and statuesque defending make him as liable to do as much damage to his own team as the opposition.

7 Smells like team spirit

Losing the first three games of a season could be enough to sow the seeds of discontent in any team - even a team that does it pretty much every year.

But the close losses to the Crusaders, Waratahs and Sharks seemed to have the opposite effect on the Chiefs who, if anything, simply got tighter.

The dramatic late comeback against the Lions in round eight hinted that this Chiefs incarnation might just have something special about it. That impression was reinforced by two gritty wins in Africa and narrow, must-win victories over the Hurricanes and Brumbies in the final two games of the round robin.

8 First fives: the fewer the merrier

If the Chiefs had one luxury no other New Zealand team enjoyed, it was the sustained presence of Stephen Donald at first five-eighths.

While the Blues, Highlanders, Crusaders and Hurricanes all chopped and changed in search of the best man for the crucial playmaking role, Donald plugged away merrily for the Chiefs, taking his stretch of consecutive appearances past the 60 mark.

Far from his best in the early rounds when he was guilty of being too cute, Donald was back in full control by the time the acid went on, scoring all of the Chiefs' points in their final two round-robin victories.

9 Aled be thy name, hooking be thy job

Part Welsh, part French and part Maori, Aled de Malmanche's muddled ancestry used to be mirrored in his job description.

Able to play any position in the frontrow, he was nonetheless more master-of-none than Jack-of-all-trades.

Having been asked to concentrate on hooking this year, De Malmanche's stock has risen so dramatically that much of the talk around the man known as Conan has shifted from how much he can bench press (lots, apparently) to whether he might be a bolter for the All Blacks.

10 Got points out of Africa

There's probably room here for some dramatic metaphor about previous Chiefs campaigns foundering like ships sucked under by huge sees off the Horn of Africa, but it's much easier just to point out that they have been crap in the Republic.

Very, very crap. Their winless streak on African soil under Foster had stretched to 12 days short of five years when the Chiefs finally toppled the Cheetahs in Kimberley in round 10.

They may have gone down to the Bulls in what proved to be a grand final rehearsal a week later but the bonus point win over the Stormers in Cape Town that followed proved the Chiefs were the real deal.

The only question now is: how real?