Rugby: Founding coach recalls Chiefs' hard road

Founding Chief Ian Foster, now the team's coach, tackles NSW's Jason Madz during this 1997 match. Photo / Getty Images

It has been a long and winding road for the Chiefs. Foundation coach Brad Meurant has watched their history unfold from the initial tremors of an awkward provincial alliance to making the final at their 14th attempt.

Meurant does not want to pass judgments on that journey, but, like everyone connected with the Chiefs, would rather they had succeeded earlier.

Way back in their 1996 debut season, Meurant had returned from a South African coaching stint in East London to try to make sense of blending players from Bay of Plenty, King Country, North Harbour, Northland, Thames Valley and Waikato.

The team wanted to be based in Hamilton but the New Zealand Rugby Union ruled that the practice centre should be in Takapuna.

That geographical mess was matched by a scheduling shambles which had the Chiefs finishing their programme while some sides still had two games to play. The Chiefs had to keep training because they were still in with a show of making the final four. They didn't.

Players with significant reputations filled the squad - Frank Bunce, Norm Berryman, Ian Foster, Walter Little, Scott McLeod, Glenn Osborne, Eric Rush, Liam Barry, Mark Cooksley, Ian Jones, Steve Gordon, Blair Larsen, Paul Mitchell, Duane Monkley, Glenn Taylor and captain Richard Turner.

"At the end of the day we were the guinea pigs and that's fine," Meurant recalls.

"We muddled our way through for the first year or so and I believe the Chiefs never really came right until they stopped trying to put the lattes with the gumboots.

"It was great fun and we were pioneers. We went off to South Africa and it was fantastic to be part of it, even with all those pitfalls and I would not have swapped it."

There were financial constraints, logistical dramas, seat of the pants stuff and plenty of banter. They survived the WRC drama with players on both sides of the argument.

Several connections remain from that first side: first five-eighths Foster is now coach and prop Craig Stevenson is his assistant.

"Fozzie stood out as a coach-in-waiting, absolutely," Meurant says. "I think he was self-employed at that stage with some sort of marketing business and his demeanour smelled of authority, which meant he was a good ally for me.

"He had that standing amongst the team, he was a huge help in running the team. He has a good appreciation of teamwork and understands the need for balance in players' lives and their work."

Foster, the future coach, played strongly for the Chiefs that season although Meurant confessed he considered dropping him for the next year. A rethink kept Foster in the No 10 jersey.

"Yeah, yeah, I spoke to him about that. He was a Waikato man through and through, he was a great lieutenant, very loyal to me, very helpful in coaching the backs. He had a good sense of humour and great approach to the game."

Foster played on until the 1998 season before he switched his talents to assisting the Chiefs and Waikato from 1999. He was promoted to Waikato coach in 2002 before he was appointed Chiefs coach in 2004.

That year the Chiefs made the semifinals for the first time before they turned in sixth, seventh, sixth, and seventh place finishes before this season's surge.