Rugby: Chiefs pipped in ugly encounter

Sam Cane scores in the first half for the Chiefs during the match in Durban yesterday. Photo / Getty Images

Despite red cards depleting numbers the Sharks win through.

If the Chiefs wish to break the unfortunate pattern they are following, the next fortnight presents an ideal opportunity.

Yesterday's unseemly defeat to the Sharks saw history repeat for the Chiefs, with the ugly outing arriving a week after an impressive victory over the Stormers.

And it was exactly the same before the side headed for South Africa - the good will generated out of the crushing of the Crusaders was immediately lost with a wasteful effort against the Highlanders.

That type of inconsistency marred their previous campaign and the Chiefs know they need to back up big wins if they wish to avoid the logjam for the wildcard places. Happily enough the schedule allows a chance to do just that.

Two teams in the competition's bottom five will visit Waikato Stadium before the Chiefs enjoy a bye week. Neither the Cheetahs nor the Blues will be easy prey, especially if the home side repeat their disjointed display from Durban, but the Chiefs should be good enough to keep pressure on the Hurricanes atop the New Zealand conference.

Brodie Retallick and Charlie Ngatai are close to returning. And Dave Rennie reported no new injuries from the match against the Sharks, about the only bright spot to emanate from that gloomy affair.

Three red cards in the opening half hour provided a numerical advantage for the Chiefs but a combination of awful conditions, handling that was just as bad and a resolute Sharks' defence limited the visitors to Sam Cane's first-half try.

"The boys are hurting," Rennie said. "They know it was a bad loss and it was a great opportunity to pick up more points tonight. We left a few out there.

"We had a lot of opportunities had we held on for one more ruck, and so on. They're professional footy players and there's an individual responsibility to maintain possession, and there were a lot of guys guilty of that."

There were also three guys guilty of foul play, with Hika Elliot's heavy shoulder to the head of Tendai Mtawarira followed swiftly by the dismissals of Bismarck du Plessis and Frans Steyn.

Rennie was unwilling to comment on Elliot's red card, given the incident is now a judicial matter, but the severity paled in comparison with his opposite number: Du Plessis deliberately kicked Michael Leitch in the head.

"It certainly made it into a different game," Rennie said of the ill-discipline. "They pretty much just bombed everything they could and we weren't good enough at defusing that and taking advantage of it. It was an incredibly disappointing night." The focus now will be on avoiding further disappointment on Saturday. The Cheetahs were humbled by the Crusaders on Saturday but Rennie was taking nothing for granted, not after seeing his side squander another game they could have won.

"We lost to the Highlanders a couple of weeks ago in a game we should've won well as well," he said. "The only way to learn from it is having a critical review. The game was there for the taking and we should've won easily.

"We need to be a hell of a lot better. It'll be a test of our character how we front up next week. We're certainly keen to make amends for what happened."