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Watch: Did the Chiefs score Super Rugby try of the season?

Sam Cane scores for the Chiefs. (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

The Chiefs kept their Super Rugby hopes alive with a 59-8 thumping of the Rebels in Melbourne on Friday, and they did so in spectacular fashion.

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Colin Cooper’s men were ruthless from the get-go, running in nine tries to secure a bonus point victory which has assured them of a place in next week’s quarter-finals.

It exemplified their sublime turn in fortunes at the backend of this season, with Friday’s result being their fourth win from their last six matches to counteract the seven losses from their opening 10 fixtures.

While the Chiefs’ 51-point riot was impressive as a whole, there was one try in the first half that stands out as arguably try of the season.

Fielding a Quade Cooper chip kick inside his own 22 metre mark, former Rebels first-five Jack Debreczeni scooped the ball up, evaded a loose tackle attempt from Luke Jones, and embarked on an ambitious run through the middle of the park.

Drawing in the tackle attempt of Will Genia near his own 10 metre mark, the 26-year-old flung a hopeful ball in-field to the supporting Anton Lienert-Brown, who continued to stretch the Rebels’ defence by dragging in another defender near halfway.

A deft offload into the hands of halfback Brad Weber was enough to take play into the hosts’ territory, and the livewire halfback didn’t need a second invitation to capitalise on an open backfield.

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He swiftly stepped past Cooper and bolted upfield at pace, closing in on the opposition 22 before firing a wide ball out to an unlikely candidate in prop Angus Ta’avao, who was in acres of space as Reece Hodge, Campbell Magnay and Richard Hardwick all closed in on the one-test All Black.

The big tighthead didn’t have enough gas to finish the job off from five metres out, though, but when swarmed by a quartet of players in navy blue jerseys, he picked out the right pass by feeding his co-captain Sam Cane with a short inside ball, allowing the openside flanker to go crashing over in under the posts.

It was a spectacular piece of play that started 80 metres out from the home side’s tryline, and the ball shifted through five pair of hands before it was finally dotted down at the other end of the park.

Many onlookers were dazzled by the spectacle, as was seen on Twitter in the wake of the try.

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The win puts the Chiefs in sixth spot on 36 points with four more matches to be played this weekend.

The winner of the Stormers v Sharks clash in Cape Town will overtake them regardless of the victor, while the Hamiltonians will be relying on the result of the Bulls v Lions in Pretoria to see if they will be playing the Crusaders in Christchurch or Jaguares in Buenos Aires next week.

In other news:

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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