The Chiefs know they are fortunate to be playing Wales in a special mid-week fixture at FMG Stadium, Waikato and are trialing a few new tactics with a focus for the return of Super Rugby in a few weeks time.
Chiefs Ready For Historic Home Fixture
Former All Black and Rugby World Cup 2011 hero Stephen Donald will captain the Chiefs at first-five, marking his first start this year and a return to International Rugby. Missing eight of their regular starters to the All Blacks, head coach Dave Rennie has had to make some tweaks to the squad but has sprung a few surprises, namely pushing regular winger James Lowe out to fullback and starting the unknown Mitch Brown in the openside flanker role ahead of the more experienced Taleni Seu.
“We’ve picked what we think is our best squad available, we have guys that can try and stake a big claim and it would be special if we can front”, Rennie said. The Chiefs head coach says that his side needs to play with intensity and pointed to the likes of Donald as a key aspect in order to get a win against Wales in front of their home fans.
“Stephen has been in charge of our attack structures and he is a passionate Chiefs man so he was the obvious choice to captain this game”, Rennie said. Donald will take the goal kicking duties with Andrew Horrell and Lowe as the two other options with the boot.
Lowe in particular seemed keen on impressing his coach during the teams final training run today, and was successful in landing kicks on goal from 60-metres out. While not serious in his goal kicking ambitions, Lowe was disappointed to miss out making the All Blacks squad for the Welsh series but sees the chance to play for the Chiefs as a big opportunity to impress again. “There was a few disappointed boys, you do a lot of reflection I guess and you do start questioning things”, Lowe said.
22-year old Mitch Brown will be tough for the Welsh to deal with in the breakdown on debut having earned the opportunity due to a mixture of injuries, departing All Blacks, and a strong Mitre 10 Cup with Taranaki last season. The youngster has been involved with the Chiefs wider training group for the past three months and says that he didn’t expect his big debut to come in a clash against an international side. “Obviously the excitement levels are high and hopefully I can build from my experiences with Taranaki”, Brown said.
The Welsh have named what many have called their “reserve squad” for the clash and will be captained by big lock Luke Charteris. In what could be an advantage for the Welsh by fielding a side with new names, the Chiefs have nothing more to go by in terms of their preparation other than what was seen in the All Blacks clash last Saturday.
15,000 tickets have been sold to the clash and the match kicks off at 6.35pm local time.
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