Clayton McMillan says elements of the Chiefs’ win over Moana Pasifika were “borderline embarrassing” despite scoring 50 points to extend their lead atop the Super Rugby log.
The Chiefs coach said Friday’s 50-35 victory in Pukekohe, near Auckland, underlined why the Chiefs “aren’t the finished product” even though they’ve produced five compelling wins from six games.
After storming 43-7 ahead at half time, playing a scintillating brand of attacking rugby, the Chiefs conceded four converted tries and were in danger of being caught until replacement hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho crossed for his team’s eighth try.
“I don’t want to be disrespectful to Moana because they really turned it up in the second half and got a good power game going,” said McMillan, who will take up the role of head coach at Irish giants Munster from July.
“But it was getting borderline embarrassing there for a little while, so we’ll go away and reflect and get ready for the next little block.”
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The Chiefs have finished runners-up in the last two seasons and McMillan wants to end his tenure in charge by going one better, before departing to take up the Munster head coach role later this year.
He has devised an attractive game plan, spearheaded by mercurial All Blacks flyhalf Damian McKenzie, which has laid on 31 tries.
However, McMillan admits they’ll need to be mentally stronger in the big games later in the season.
“That first half was as good as any I’ve seen from the Chiefs at my time on the team but clearly we aren’t the finished product,” he said.
“When we play Chiefs rugby and we do the simple things well, then we’re a tough team to live with. When we stray too far from that then we can go from [being] an undisciplined to a pretty ordinary side.”
The Chiefs will have a bye next week while Moana, who remain last in the 11-team league following a fourth defeat, will face the Crusaders in Christchurch.
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Photo: Michael Bradley/Getty Images
