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Etene Nanai-Seturo on the Chiefs' success out wide after demolition of Moana Pasifika
By Ben Smith
The Chiefs celebrated Etene Nanai-Seturo’s 50th appearance in Super Rugby with a 10-try rout of Moana Pasifika in Hamilton.
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The 68-12 win highlighted the firepower at the Chiefs’ disposal with the backs running wild, returning All Black winger Emoni Narawa scoring a hat-trick in addition to three try assists.
The surprising aspect of the win was the level of connection across the backline despite many positional and personnel changes. Nanai-Seturo, who has spent most his career on the wing, got a rare start at fullback.
Promising centre Daniel Rona was handed a start in the No 13 jersey, while Narawa made his first start of the year alongside Counties Manakau wing Peniasi Malimali on the left.
“Shooter does a great job for us at the back along with Slim [Damian McKenzie],” Nanai-Seturo told Sky Sport NZ post-match,” but it was good to get my first run in the No 15 jersey.”
Nanai-Seturo saw plenty of touches in the 15 jersey, carrying 17 times for 135 running metres as the Chiefs leading ball carrier.
He celebrated his milestone game with a walk-in try backing up on the inside and added a try assist himself.
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On what made the Chiefs’ free-flowing style click, Nanai-Seturo put the performance down to the platform up front.
After the loss to the Crusaders last week, the message was simply to improve up front.
“Yeah it’s good, we’ve got to do the job up front. This week the coaches put their foot down, coming off last week’s performance we had to dominate up front,” he said.
“When we do that, we’ve got players like Shooter, Slim, and Emoni out there.
“Our mindset at training, our coaches keep harping on about, when one man goes down the next one stands up.
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“I think we do that pretty well at the Chiefs, we just have to keep at it, keep doing the little things.
“Like I said, when we dominate up front the backs get to do their thing out wide.”
The bonus-point win propelled the Chiefs back into fourth position on the ladder with a 5-2 record.
They travel to Wellington in round seven to face the undefeated Hurricanes in a crunch mid-season clash between two heavyweight of the competition.
