Rugby: Chiefs dazzle Reds in glorious tryfest

Sione Lauaki keeps the ball moving against the Reds. Photo / Getty Images

SUPER 14
Reds 26
Chiefs 50

It was a contender for try of the season and it underlined why the Chiefs might just - finally, glowingly - have their season of seasons in 2009.

Halfback Brendon Leonard sparked it early on with a blindside run, making the Reds close-quarter defence look cumbersome. Flanker Tanerau Latimer set up the ruck.

Then first five-eighths Stephen Donald, in his best game of the season, chipped a flat kick across field, aiming for his three-quarters. Fullback Mils Muliaina leapt high to regain possession and flicked off a clever little instant pass.

Centre Richard Kahui took the ball on the angle, drawing three desperate defenders away, before flipping another clever ball inside to Sitiveni Sivivatu - four tries last week, two this time - who danced through an impossibly small hole and fooled two defenders to score.

It was a thing of beauty - quick thinking, skill, vision, combination and execution - and it came hard on the heels of a Donald try where he ended an early period of Reds dominance by streaking 80m to score.

Sivivatu scored a second after a Chiefs backline move close to the line (justice, as Sivivatu had been denied by a seemingly blind, deaf and dumb touch judge who eschewed the use of the video referee by assuring the field referee that it wasn't a try when it was).

Fourteen minutes gone, Chiefs 19 and a shell-shocked Reds nil, especially stunning as the Reds had done most of the attacking for half that opening period. But then, as there so often is with the Chiefs, there was a but.

Replacement Dwayne Sweeney - in for an injured Sivivatu - had a mental meltdown of about the same dimensions as the touch judge and demonstrably clattered into a kick receiver while he hung in the air. Have a yellow card, Dwayne.

That seemed to put a rather large fly into what had been some very effective Chiefs' ointment.

The Reds gathered themselves with the Chiefs trying to slow the game down a bit. They mauled their way over for a try to hooker Sean Hardman and then a good team try to second-five Berrick Barnes got matters back to 19-12.

It was a false recovery. The Chiefs found their mojo again, counter-attacking sweetly, slipping the ball neatly from player to player like a high-octane game of pass the potato.

From a perfect Donald kick to an empty Reds back field (like the Blues before them, the Reds' defence was about as watertight as a lace handkerchief), Muliaina raced onto the bouncing ball to score and Sweeney, restored from his yellow prison, skipped past some shonky defending to make the halftime score 37-12.

In this form, the Chiefs are far and away the most attractive side in the competition, and the most dangerous. Sione Lauaki continued last week's form and, with his loose colleagues Latimer and Liam Messam, are perhaps the best combination in the Super 14.

Leonard will be pleasing the All Black selectors, as will Donald and Muliaina. This is what rugby should be like. Get the ball, shift it wide, fast and with precision, and run like hell.

The Reds came back with a try to stepping fullback Mark McLinden but his counterpart, Muliaina, scored a slick second. The game petered out as the Chiefs took their foot off the gas, the game won, and made their substitutions. But it was great while it lasted.

Reds 26 (S. Hardman, B. Barnes, M. McLinden, D. Braid tries; Barnes 3 con), Chiefs 50 (S. Donald, S. Sivivatu 2, M. Muliaina 2, D.Sweeney tries; Donald 3 con, 4 pen; M. Delany con). Halftime: 12-37)