‘They all hurt’: Chiefs coach reacts to another Grand Final defeat

For the second year in a row, the Chiefs have fallen at the last hurdle in Super Rugby Pacific after being caught on the wrong side of a one-sided Grand Final at Eden Park. The Blues emerged triumphant 41-10 after the Chiefs “didn’t fire any bullets” in the decider.

The Chiefs were the form team of the competition in 2023, with the Hamilton-based outfit earning the right to host the Grand Final at FMG Stadium Waikato. But after losing to the Crusaders, they soon turned their focus to going one better this season.

While they seemed to fly under the radar for long periods of the campaign, the likes of Damian McKenzie, Wallace Sititi and Emoni Narawa showed time and time again that they weren’t to be counted out. This was a team that had the potential to take home the crown.

After knocking the Hurricanes out with a clinical win in Wellington last weekend, the Chiefs travelled north to Auckland but this challenge proved too tough. The Blues weren’t just dominant, they were relentless as they piled on the points.

The match was all but over in the 50^th minute when wing Caleb Clarke scored the second of his three tries. The Chiefs continued to throw the odd punch but none were really landing as they were beaten with the title on the line for the second consecutive season.

“Just not our day really, was it? We barely fired a shot. It was disappointing for the boys who have put in a lot of hard work, disappointing for our fans who toured up state highway one,” coach Clayton McMillan told reporters at Eden Park.

“To go out with a bit of a whimper was disappointing but still incredibly proud of this team.”

“They all hurt mate, they all hurt,” he added later in the press conference.

“Last year’s one hurt because we felt like we’d actually fired lots of bullets and did enough to win. This one hurt because we didn’t fire any bullets.”

Former All Blacks backrower Akira Ioane opened the scoring in his final match for the Blues in the 11^th minute. Caleb Clarke was the only try scorer in the opening 40, but the boot of Harry Plummer saw the hosts take a commanding 20-3 lead into the sheds.

The Chiefs went down to 14 men about 10 minutes into the second half and that’s when the floodgates opened. Clarke scored again and completed a hat-trick shortly after that. With a 34-3 lead, the Aucklanders began to celebrate their certain victory.

AJ Lam got one more try on the board for the home side as they held on for a big win. The Chiefs have been very good once again this season, and while the pain of defeat was clear to see on the faces of the playing group and coaches, there are some lessons to learn.

“I don’t want to be sitting here every year talking about us losing a final. It sucks,” McMillan explained.

“It takes a lot of effort and hard work to get to a final. Plenty of teams are sitting at home wishing they were here but we feel like we earned the right to be here, we just encountered a better team on the day.

“We had maybe, lucky to get 30 per cent of possession, a lot of that was in the wrong parts of the field. A lot of that we contributed to our own inaccuracy and just with that sheer weight of possession it starts to take its toll.

“300, nearly close to 300 tackle and maybe they make, I don’t know, 70 or 80… just didn’t fire enough bullets to put pressure back on them.

“Give credit to Vern [Cotter] because he’s come here, he’s recognised the athletes that he’s got and he’s flipped the script on the way the Blues have traditionally played and it’s paid huge dividends. We tip our hat to them for that.”