Chiefs still eyeing top spot in NZ conference

The Hamilton-based side are currently 11 points behind the Crusaders, but they still enjoy a game in hand over the Christchurch.

The Chiefs will need to win their remaining matches and hope that the Crusaders and the Hurricanes drop points along the way if they are to get to the top of the standings ahead of the play-offs.

"We haven't counted out the fact we can still finish top in our Conference but we need a couple of other sides to knock over the Crusaders," Chiefs coach Dave Rennie told allblacks.com.

"We'll control what we can, obviously that's through a good performance this weekend [against the Blues]."

There will be a lot on the line at Eden Park this weekend as the Blues will also be looking for a win to keep their play-off hopes alive.

"I think they'll [Blues] be highly-motivated, but they've always been massive encounters and I expect nothing different this week," Rennie 

said.

Rennie has pinpointed a few areas where his team went wrong in their 24-31 defeat to the Crusaders. 

"We made a couple of defensive errors that we wouldn't normally make, they [Crusaders] were pretty clinical and they scored off them. 

"We had some opportunities especially just before and just after half-time that we could have put a little pressure on them but we didn't nail those," Rennie added.

Source: @AllBlacks