Chiefs storm to Super title win
4 Aug 2012
JON CARDINELLI watched the Chiefs deliver a masterclass in power and composure to crush the Sharks 37-6 in Saturday’s Super Rugby final.
Some will list travel fatigue as decisive. Some will complain that referee Steve Walsh was too lenient on the hosts. Some might say the clamour of cowbells and the driving rain made for a perfect storm of pressure that squeezed the fight out of the Sharks.
But the external factors were never decisive.
The Chiefs rocked up in rampant mood. Their forwards absorbed the early pressure, and their inside backs played outstanding finals football. They ran away with the game in the second half, but the result was secured in the first.
The Sharks needed to bank early points if they were ever going to win this final. Their forwards clattered into the collisions during a bruising first quarter and their line speed on defence kept the Chiefs on the back foot.
But a three-point return during that period was never going to be enough. They coughed up too much possession on attack, and it was a series of missed opportunities early in the piece that they were made to regret.
The Chiefs’ performance in that first half highlighted the tactical nous of the coaching staff, as well as the efficiency of the team’s key decision makers. They played for territory but they also kept the Sharks’ defence guessing with a series of grubbers and chip kicks.
It was a deft nudge by Aaron Cruden that sparked the Chiefs’ first try. Sharks fullback Pat Lambie was caught in two minds, and in the end he made the wrong decision in allowing Cruden’s chip kick to bounce.
The Chiefs, as they have done all season and managed to do on several occasions during this final, chased well and forced the breakdown turnover. From here, the Sharks’ defence was compromised, and centre Sonny Bill Williams took full advantage, breaking two tackles to take play up to the opposition 22.
From there the ball flew out to the left where it was Chiefs backs versus Sharks forwards. Tim Nanai-Williams obliged with a score that spelled trouble for the Sharks, even at that early stage.
For all the talk of fatigue, the Sharks’ intensity at the collisions never seemed to flag. And yet, they struggled to adapt to Walsh’s calls at the breakdown.
Their defensive work was outstanding for the most part, but they made some poor decisions with ball in hand and failed to stretch the Chiefs’ defence.
Their set piece was expected to rattle that of the Chiefs, but the hosts overcame some early lineout wobbles to compete strongly and force several turnovers of their own.
The Sharks also struggled to win set-piece possession in the Chiefs half, and were completely outplayed in the battle for territory. The Chiefs peppered the Sharks in the first half, and the pressure told.
Cruden, who would miss a couple of goal kicks later in the game, was accurate in front of poles during those first 40 minutes. It allowed the Chiefs to build a commanding lead, and before the Sharks knew it, they were 13-3 down.
It was a massive deficit considering the conditions. It was a gap they were never going to close with the Chiefs dominating the collisions and winning the kicking game.
The Sharks suffered a further setback when Kane Thompson crashed over from a five-metre scrum early in the second half. At 20-3, the visitors were dead and buried.
They attempted to play more expansively in an effort to close the gap but, as the final scoreline suggests, this only played into the Chiefs’ hands. The Waikato outfit fed off the Sharks’ errors and scored two more tries.
The performance was emphatic, and the victory well deserved. The Chiefs have played some brilliant rugby at times this season, but they have also shown themselves to be one of the best defensive teams.
The tactical excellence of their halfback pairing hasn’t received enough credit, and Cruden and Tawera Kerr-Barlow certainly played a decisive role in winning this final.
It’s an embarrassing end for the Sharks, who have also produced some encouraging and balanced performances in 2012. In the end, they will lament the early season failures that forced them to travel so extensively in the play-offs.
The Chiefs are the Super Rugby champions for the first time in the competition’s history. They are worthy of the title. They won the New Zealand conference. They won the right to host a semi-final and, thanks to the Stormers’ home defeat, a final.
Their consistency allowed them to do so, and it was also a consistent performance that allowed them to beat the Sharks in the decider.
603 Comments
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4 Aug 2012, 16:27 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions.-549:
Who said scoring tries were so important? Well it was today – four nil I think…
I feel for some of the Sharks supporters but for those losers you were thumped. The Stormers never had four tries scored against them ever this Super 15 and were never thumped by any team…
4 Aug 2012, 16:32 pm
@Gumboots-551: I’ve been trying to come up with
a word for what happened to the Sharks today.
We were apparently brutally castrated last week….
What would one call what happened to them today if a 7 point loss is a brutal castration?
Any suggestions?
4 Aug 2012, 16:32 pm
@rossoneri-510: Ag what the hell. You know what I’m referring to. Maybe Hurricane doesn’t and I can’t really blame him for being bemused at my aside. But all those who enjoy their rugby at Newlands will certainly know what I’m referring to and many stay away becasue of it. But sorry I mentioned it. You do what you have to do. Free world.
4 Aug 2012, 16:34 pm
The irony of all their warped thinking:ending in the top two(thus winning the conference title)on the log would have negated all this heartache they are experiencing at the moment.The Sharks would have avoided the dreaded travel and probably would have been champions tonight based on their recent scintillating form.Instead of congratulating the Stormers their hatred got the better of them and at the end of the day came back to bite them in the arse.The Stormers wasted a golden opportunity but not the Chiefs.You see,it pays to end in the top two.
4 Aug 2012, 16:34 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions.-552:
A tragic comedy…
4 Aug 2012, 16:37 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions.-549:
When it comes to Sharks and Stormers I lose all control. Again my split personalities badly compromise me for you can see those Sharks I hate “Boom brigade” are nowhere to be seen and that for days now.
Also I got the Boom all wrong too for who smokes more ‘Boom’ than us darlings of Newlands as most can see it waft over the stands and field and it smells quite good too.
Who is me now? Can I nic it to Tassies, Hondo, Boertjie, maybe even Gumboots?
4 Aug 2012, 16:41 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions. said:-556: Hello extrabollocks, Wooden Spoon, Dusky and that other unpleasant fellow who steals my nic regularly.
Feeling a little down today?
4 Aug 2012, 16:42 pm
The Greeks probably feel that they are not too bad off tonight in light of what happened to the Sharks today.
4 Aug 2012, 16:42 pm
hehehehehe the Stormerchiefs celebrating in force! that’s what a sharksmashing in the semi does to one – it bitterfies the blood. what a complete walloping we gave in the semi to them! and away from home too!
4 Aug 2012, 16:43 pm
@Gumboots-555: I think shooting only starts on that ‘tragic comedy’ tommorrow (when reality hits…)
When is the Bok squad announced?
4 Aug 2012, 16:44 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions.-557:
Poor imitations… You need brains to go with the nic stealing…
They could never pull it off…
4 Aug 2012, 16:45 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions.-560:
I thought today… but not too sure…
4 Aug 2012, 16:45 pm
In the semi.
So what commander.
4 Aug 2012, 16:46 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions. said:-556: sounds very much like a joint venture
4 Aug 2012, 16:46 pm
@Wing Commander Raymond-559:
Spooner your team was thumped today… Like no other – joining the Chiefs as the biggest hiding in Super Finals… A good record to have I guess as you made the finals…
4 Aug 2012, 16:46 pm
For the record I went offside in 506 and for the wimp that I was I got some genuine-leather handbags on my head.
Apartheid did not start in 1958 but long before that and will continue and ferster long into the future. Sorry.
4 Aug 2012, 16:47 pm
It’s only the final that counts wingnutter …according to your own fans on here.Keohane,last week,informed me that one French team lost ten finals in a row before finally winning the top 14.Don’t worry,only 7 more to go for the record.
4 Aug 2012, 16:48 pm
Jeez there are some despicable people on this site.
4 Aug 2012, 16:51 pm
@TASSIES-566:
dont worry dude, maybe post # 550 will help
4 Aug 2012, 16:52 pm
@stormerforlife1-567: Half of them don’t even understand that they are in fact, greater chokers than what the Stormers will ever be. This Raymond fellow, wrote this earlier, and it sums up their ‘special needs’ status in ONE. (Please read the bit about how the Sharks have a pedigree of regularly contesting finals. Yet ‘it’ fails to mention that all the regular contesting has led to nothing but raw windpipes from the violent choking) Choking pedigree indeed. Special needs…
Wise words from Wing Commander Raymond:
“whilst the Stormers have peaked and will now commence the downward curve it’s only a matter of time for the Sharks as they have the Super pedigree of regularly contesting finals. the Stormers don’t really have the history, do they?!”
4 Aug 2012, 16:57 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions.-557:
I am so helpless. I just throw many and any nics out there. Somewhere, someone will stick even if none of those nics are active today.
sorrytotheinnocentonesouthteresomewhere
4 Aug 2012, 17:03 pm
@TASSIES-566: Why are you apologizing, for the life of me cant understand why people defend these Cape Kroessaders. I just wonder what would happen if during a game at Loftus a group of Bok supporters bring the old South African flag and start waving it,I am willing to bet a lot of money that the same people defending these Cape Kroessader will come on here and go ballistic.
4 Aug 2012, 17:03 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions-571: You are not helpless. You just have the EQ of a special needs toddler. And one day, you will be able to eat without a bib (just in time for your 50th).
Now if you want to do a GOOD job of being me, go and whinge about some of the utter plonkers selected for the Bok squad.
4 Aug 2012, 17:04 pm
Dawn emmer is here 24.7 making kak
4 Aug 2012, 17:06 pm
Cape kroessaders are okes with only grade 10 max. Have evidence to prove it.. Most are tikkoppe…
4 Aug 2012, 17:08 pm
Apartheid is a myth….
4 Aug 2012, 17:09 pm
And prawn milf
4 Aug 2012, 17:09 pm
@Gumboots-565:
Let me stop the rot here for you and rosso.
2 x 5 x 6 = 6 x 2 x 5 is a true equation
but
spooner = Wooden Spoon = Wing Commander Raymond is not a true equation.
I know where I am but no idea where Wing Commander is.
And I am not a Shark supporter. My team is the EP Kings and my nic has not often been seen here, maybe I should just vanish.
Dawn took a wrong guess and like sheep you all followed.
4 Aug 2012, 17:15 pm
@grant10-577: Do you need a hug? Or another drink? Either way, there is something seriously wrong with you. But you know that of course….
4 Aug 2012, 17:34 pm
The Sharks got blitzkrieged today.The execution of the Chiefs gameplan was a sight to behold.
4 Aug 2012, 18:03 pm
@stormerforlife1-580: Has that got anything to do with their colours? Black,Red Yellow.
4 Aug 2012, 18:10 pm
@stormerforlife1-554: Keep the format as it is. But give at least 2weeks space between the semi’s and the finals. It will mske for a better competition. Having said that, the Chiefs were the better team on the day. Interesting that the 2teams that were really thumped in earlier years , were the SR champs the last 2 years.
4 Aug 2012, 18:20 pm
@spooner-514: well if that is my interpretation then I think I’m entitled to it. You’ll have to witness how these so called supporters behave to properly appreciate what I’m saying. But if this calls my intellect into question I’ll live with it. Your opinion of me is just that. An opinion. And are you the real Spooner? Because you don’t sound like it.
4 Aug 2012, 18:26 pm
@Hurricane-550: beautiful Mr Hurcane. Impressed.
4 Aug 2012, 18:27 pm
@heboric-572: nic stealing at its miserable best mate. Twas not I.
4 Aug 2012, 18:29 pm
Not a big purse today, too obvious outcome
Some positives to take away from the fiasco would be the hard work put in by the Beast and Mvovo, great effort !
4 Aug 2012, 18:29 pm
@TASSIES-566: having fun with my nic are you. Uber childish.
4 Aug 2012, 18:31 pm
Extraball’s many personalities to the fore
4 Aug 2012, 18:35 pm
I vote we all leave this site till people decide who they want to be.
4 Aug 2012, 19:16 pm
@TASSIES-585: ah okay
4 Aug 2012, 21:04 pm
haven’t bothered to read through this thread……
but let me say, well done to the chiefs – well deserved.
you were the best team in the tournament this year.
bad luck to the sharks – you guys deserved to be the challengers.
maybe a bridge too far given the format.
4 Aug 2012, 22:01 pm
having now scanned through this thread it seems the normal idiots prevailed….
why oh why do we still have to put up with the bitter types like…
dogbreath
poodlenaaier
hater (rossoneri)
hell, even robzim showed his true colours.
and yet we have a balanced oke like tassies having to field krappy questions from our resident lowlifes.
4 Aug 2012, 22:28 pm
(balanced oke like tassies )
What a laugh, more like found out.
4 Aug 2012, 23:20 pm
“Sports scientist Ross Tucker”, having been wheeled out as the sacrificial lamb this week when Prof Noakes was unavailable, will apply to change his christian name this week to
‘Dog’.
5 Aug 2012, 06:04 am
Still no Fern or HG?
Shows what these guys are really like.
HGM = Heavens Gone Missing. Does it so many times.
Talks the talk then cowers when the going gets tough.
5 Aug 2012, 06:53 am
From a Nz perspective, enjoyed the Chiefs win, they played well considering the conditions and the pressure from being favourites. It kind of went downhill for the Sharks from around the 20 minute mark and the growing error rate compounded the pressure and the game was slowly slipping away for them. In the end I did feel sympathy for the Sharks as they are a better team than the scoreline suggests. Yet the history books will read “Chiefs Super Rugby Champions 2012″ and that it is well deserved.
5 Aug 2012, 09:45 am
@Te Rangatira-596: Nicely said.
Congrats again to the Chiefs. No comment on the peanut gallery Stormer supporters who still can’t fathom that they LOST in the semi.
A bridge too far for the boys with big hearts, mind may have been there, body wasn’t.
Not going to go into anything else, the result is the result and Chiefs deserve it.
Have a grand Sunday everyone.
5 Aug 2012, 09:52 am
@Gumboots-551: You still lost in the Semi, what would you prefer, a special needs invite to the final?
Stop being such a sore loser about things, the sun will come up tomorrow and you can gloat next week when your full strength team plays the Sharks 3rd XV in Cape Town.
5 Aug 2012, 10:37 am
The sharks had their final against the 2ndraters at newlands and won,this game was one simply too many.
5 Aug 2012, 10:59 am
@blueboy-599: Sharks didnt play the Bulls at Newlands
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