When the Chiefs last hosted a playoff game, the night ended with the home side hoisting the trophy for the second straight year.
Hamilton seemed the centre of the Super Rugby world and few would have expected it to take almost a decade for knockout rugby to return to thecity.
Luke Jacobson was certainly surprised about that drought. The loose forward was still at Cambridge High School in 2013, a few years away from running out on FMG Stadium for the first time as a Waikato player, and he felt the fans deserved a reward for their perseverance.
"I was a little bit shocked that it had been that long," Jacobson said ahead of the Chiefs' home quarter-final against the Waratahs tomorrow afternoon.
"I haven't played in a home playoff, so we're really excited. I love playing at FMG – it's been my home ground right through. To be able to go out in front of our home fans, you just can't beat it, so we'll be looking to put on a bit of a show for our fans."
Those fans would happily take a second screening of the last time the sides met in April, when the Chiefs thumped the Waratahs 51-27 in Melbourne. But coach Clayton McMillan was wary about assigning much significance to that game, given New South Wales were reduced to 13 men in a horror opening quarter.
"They're probably the most improved team in the competition," McMillan said. "We experienced that in the first transtasman game this year - we managed to pull away in the end but we had some favours go our way.
"Their game has just got better and better. There's a lot of internal belief, you can see that emanate from them - they look like a happy bunch. But what makes them really dangerous is that they'll be coming here with a sort of siege mentality."
The Chiefs' own threat was diminished when Sam Cane was ruled out of the match, having trained earlier in the week but not quite able to overcome his knee injury. Jacobson will start at openside flanker but McMillan is hopeful his captain can return if the Chiefs win through to the semifinals, a result that will be dependent on the hosts doing enough of the little things right tomorrow.
"There are moments in games that in isolation might not look like they mean much, but stack a couple of those moments together and that can often be the difference in winning and losing the game, particular in finals," McMillan said. "The team that cherishes the ball and makes the most of those opportunities will come out on the right side."
