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Chiefs must 'crank up' the gears

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:11

The Chiefs are facing a tough challenge

The Chiefs, realising they are on the brink of letting their perfect start to the season slip, have promised they will "crank up" the gears when they return from their bye in Week Seven.

After a three-week road trip, which included back-to-back wins in South Africa for the first time, the team from Hamilton was sitting pretty near the top of the table - one of only three unbeaten teams and just one point behind the Bulls.

Now, after back-to-back defeats at home - including their 19-26 return against the Crusaders at the weekend - they are in fourth place, on points difference only, and in danger of losing out to the impressive South African duo of the Stormers and Bulls.

Chiefs coach Ian Foster admitted the defeats "hurt", but felt they will be all the better for it after the bye.

The bye may well have come at the perfect time, to allow the team to reassess and see what went wrong in the past fortnight.

In round seven the Chiefs will travel to Canberra to take on the Brumbies.

Foster said as much, when speaking after the loss to the Crusaders.

"it was a tight clash. I felt that they [the Crusaders] had prolonged periods where they controlled the ball and played us around the fringes pretty well," the Chiefs mentor said.

"It hurts but there are enough good things in that game to let us go away to the bye, ponder, and come back with some enthusiasm. And the bonus point we'll take it."

The players are also sending out positive messages, despite the defeats at home.

"We're obviously not happy about losing our last two games but this time last year we were on 12 points," All Black centre Richard Kahui told Sunday News.

"So we still know there are plenty of games to go and we're not playing anywhere near our potential yet, so that's a positive sign. If we were losing and playing well it would be a worrying time for us.

"We know we're not playing well but we've still got plenty of gears left.

"We'll look forward to coming back and playing against the Brumbies in two weeks' time but we'll enjoy our time off before then."

Kahui also spoke of the need to regroup this coming week, before they start to prepare for the trip to Canberra.

"After those first three weeks away and that tough week when we came back it feels like the season so far has gone pretty quickly," Kahui said.

"The guys are looking forward to having a rest as well as reviewing those first five weeks. With the bye next week we'll have a recap to see where we go from here."

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