ruckingkiwi says...

The Chiefs are stacked with recent age grade stars, Retallick, TKB, Cruden, Tameifuna, Sam Cane, Robbie Robinson and they've all had to grow up real quick. Obviously the coaches have had a lot of input into that. But it's not just the Chiefs, the youngsters have made their mark right across the NZ conference, Andre Taylor, TJ Parenara, Francis Saili, Steven Luatua, Julian Savea, Beauden Barritt etc, all are fresh out of age group, good times ahead.

Posted 09:09 06th August 2012

philb87 says...

Best team won on the day.

Stardust sprinkled around the team in SBW, Cruden and Messam.

Good young players who performed when it mattered: Retallick, Tameifuna, Robinson, Horrell

and got the best out of the seasoned campaigners: Clarke, Taumololo, Schwalger, Thompson

Coaches created a great environment for the players to thrive and crucially they learned from their mistakes too. Beaten by the Crusaders in the round robins and then added the necessary niggle in the semi to get them off their game. McCaw was totally negated in that one. that was where the Chiefs won the title.

Dumptackle Rugby Blog have written an interesting article on how the Chiefs have come so far within 12 months, if anyone is interested.

Posted 23:32 05th August 2012