Chiefs 15
Sharks 9
So the Chiefs do know how to win ugly and they know how to win tough.
Not many neutral fans would have wagered on the Chiefs beating the South Africans, and even fewer would had they known the match was going to be tryless.
They
were not playing tiddlywinks out there, with whispered suggestions the visitors used dark arts like face-raking and biting.
Late last night, the Chiefs would not comment, and the citing commission liaison officer said he had yet to hear of a complaint. The citing commissioner has 24 hours to lay a charge.
For much of the match it felt like a familiar fault was going to haunt the home side.
In American football they call it the red zone; in Hamilton they might have to start calling the 22m area the dead zone - where promising moves and possession come to die.
While the conditions rarely allowed for rhythmic, flank-to-flank assaults, the Chiefs punched and crunched their way into advantageous positions, only to see their work undone by a pushed pass or ball lost in contact.
Coach Ian Foster does not need to launch a tirade - his side has no shortage of courage or conviction, just the occasional lack of respect for the pill.
"It was a gutsy win," Foster said. "It is nice to win the tight ones. We don't have too many games without tries at this stadium.
"We had eight lost possessions in the first 20 minutes, which was frustrating ... but we sorted that out."
Forty minutes had yielded just three penalties, two to the Sharks' Patrick Lambie, one to Tim Nanai-Williams, who kicked in place of Stephen Donald while he was receiving treatment for a back injury that did not look dissimilar to the knock suffered by Mils Muliaina in round 3.
Donald lasted less than a quarter before being replaced by the impressive Mike Delany. He was taken to hospital for precautionary x-rays and joined the walking wounded from this game, including Isaac Ross (hip), Ben May (calf) and Romana Graham (head knock).
The Chiefs started the second spell well and two long-range Delany penalties edged them in front. Lambie hit back to even it at nine, before a strange sort of stalemate emerged.
The Sharks were happy to continue a low-risk policy and even the Chiefs buttoned down their ambition to suit.
Sharks coach John Plumtree lamented his side's kicking game.
"Our kicking game was not good enough. They got reward from our poor kicking ...
"Thy have superb counter-attacking backs, so we played into their hands a little bit there," Plumtree said.
A counter-attack in the 70th minute resulted in a penalty - perhaps on another night it would have come accompanied by a yellow card - which Delany nailed to give the Chiefs the lead for good.
So the smallish crowd went home happy. On a bleak night like this the telly would have looked good, as would the fridge full of green grenades. Perhaps Hamiltonians are thinking, 'Maybe next time'."
Good idea. This team look on the cusp of a big performance.
