'Every team loses influential players' Chiefs head coach puts confidence in 2025 squad

Despite the two recent successful seasons for the Chiefs under Clayton McMillan, they are without a Super Rugby Pacific title in recent years, losing to the Blues in last year’s final at Eden Park.

Clayton McMillan’s side won both of their pre-season games in 2025, beating the Hurricanes in New Plymouth and Moana Pasifika in Pukekohe on Saturday.

McMillan’s side will be without fullback Shaun Stevenson for the first three rounds at least, as well as World Rugby Men’s 15’s Breakthrough Player of the Year Wallace Sititi, who will miss most, if not all of the 2025 season.

McMillan, who talked to Jason Pine on Newstalk ZB’s Weekend Sport, says that although Sititi will be missed, he is confident that other loose forwards will step up in his absence.

“We’ll miss him, but we’re really pleased with the depth of our loose forwards, we’ve got people that can play multiple positions, and it’s going to be a real dogfight for the guys that we got to earn an opportunity to play each week,” McMillan told Pine.

“He sort of exploded on the scene last year for the Chiefs and was able to go to another level throughout the international season. He’s got a real point of difference around his athleticism and skill.

“Every team loses influential players and we’re no different.”

There have been no extra injury concerns that have come out of pre-season for the Chiefs, as McMillan confirms he’s set to have a near full squad to work with against the Blues next week.

“It’s always our biggest concern, coming out of preseason unscathed, and there’s little niggles here and there from yesterday’s game as you would expect, but nothing that’s going to cause us any concern in week one.”

Although the Chiefs took care of business in pre-season, recording two victories from two games, McMillan admits he would have liked to see more from his side.

“To be perfectly honest, I was hoping for us to take a bigger step forward yesterday than we did, as we showed some good signs last week against the Hurricanes, and whilst it was good to get some more minutes into the lads on Saturday, and with our All Blacks come back, they put in a pretty decent shift in the second half, we didn’t quite nail the things that we’d worked on in the week.

“We know we got depth. We know we have quality and if we just nail the basics, well, then we’ll give ourselves a decent chance of being there at the end.”

“Our scrum and lineout functioned pretty well, just the basic fundamentals, just your carry, clean game, skill execution under pressure, some decision making and nothing that we can’t iron out, but it was just disappointing that we didn’t take that step forward against Moana Pasifika.”

The Chiefs have the luxury of having All Blacks first-five Damian McKenzie at their disposal this year, as well as All Blacks XV and Taranaki playmaker Josh Jacomb. 

McMillan believes he’s able to use both Jacomb and McKenzie, even though only one can play No.10.

“It’s a balancing act, but ultimately it comes down to nailing your opportunities when you get them. So nobody in our team has a right of passage to pull on the jersey.

“It’s earned through time in the jersey, what you deliver at training, and what you can produce when given an opportunity to get out on the field.”

“So he’s a talented young man (Jacomb), he’s a competitor, and he’s certainly not there to just make up the numbers and roll over and give Damian the jersey. 

McKenzie, who’s coming off a big international season with the All Blacks, will be looking to gain momentum and prove to All Blacks coach Scott Robertson that he’s the form No.10 in New Zealand.

McMillan tells Pine that he’s been impressed with how the All Black first-five has come into pre-season.

“He looked like his usual self against Moana Pasifika. I think he recognizes that he’s come in fairly late in the piece, having only had sort of a week and a half full training plus 40 minutes yesterday, but the balance of the rest of the squad have done the hard yards pre-Christmas and post Christmas.”

Head-to-Head

Last 5 Meetings

Wins

2

Draws

0

Wins

3

Average Points scored

26

21

First try wins

80%

Home team wins

80%

The All Blacks were without one of their most destructive ball runners, hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho, last year after he was injured in the Super Rugby Pacific semi-final against the Hurricanes.

McMillan confirms that the hooker’s recovery is nearly complete, aiming to return three to four weeks into the Super Rugby Pacific season.

“He’s looking really positive. He had a setback early on in his rehab, but he’s been really diligent around his rehab.

“He’s almost back into full training. So we anticipate that sort of round three or four, he could likely return. 

“But of course, it’s one of those injuries to a front rower that you want to make sure you get 100% right.” 

The Chiefs will be looking to go one better this year, after falling short once again in the 2024 season. McMillan is confident that even though they have lost some of last year’s squad, they have the squad to win the 2025 competition.

“We feel like we’ve got the squad that can take us deep into the competition. Finals show you that it’s about who can deliver a performance on the day. 

“As you get towards the back end of the season, the game tightens up. It’s the weather that starts to come into the equation. 

“We don’t want to change fundamentally how we play Chiefs rugby, which gives the ball some air and we ask our players to be courageous, but also recognise that teams understand what it looks like when we’re playing well, and how they can impose their game on us to potentially suffocate us.”