Chiefs to work hard during bye week

Editor

Chiefs boss Dave Rennie admits he was watching plenty of rugby over the weekend, as he plans his side's defence of their title.

Chiefs boss Dave Rennie admits he was watching plenty of rugby over the weekend, as he plans his side's defence of their title.

After guiding his side to a hard-fought 26-16 victory over the Blues in Auckland, he watched the Stormers' 30-13 win over the Bulls in Cape Town, during the early hours of the morning in New Zealand.

The latter result secured the Chiefs the top spot on the table but Rennie knows that plenty of hard work lies ahead before his side returns to action in two weeks time.

He expects the Chiefs to host the winner of the play-off between the Crusaders and Reds in Christchurch but is not ruling out any upsets at this stage of the competition.

“If it goes to seedings you would expect the Brumbies to beat the Cheetahs [in Canberra] so we'd play the winner of the Crusaders-Reds game and we'll do a bit of extra preparation on the Reds this week because we've done a lot on the Crusaders in recent times and just need to tidy up a few things from their game at the weekend,” he told Fairfax Media.

“But I guess if the Cheetahs knock over the Brumbies then that's who we'll be playing so we'll do a bit of work on all those teams and then watch with interest at the weekend.”

Although the Stormers' win over the Bulls has taken plenty of pressure off the Chiefs, Rennie is taking nothing for granted and revealed that his side will be giving their all in a bid to repeat their 2012 triumph.

“It's obviously nice to qualify No 1 and I guess we don't have to worry about travelling now,” he added.

“You win your semi and you get to stay at home for the final, which is nice, but that's the easy part of it. There are six very strong sides and it's wide open, I think.”