Chiefs too good for hapless Cheetahs

The Chiefs cemented their place in the top six of Super Rugby with a convincing 37-27 win over the Cheetahs in Hamilton on Saturday.

The home side outscored the Cheetahs, still winless on their Australasian tour, by four tries to three.

However, the margin does not tell the full story of the Chiefs' second-half dominance, after they took a narrow one-point lead into the break and lead 37-20 with time officially up – a late consolation try giving the visitors' scoreline some respectability.

The first half was a mess, a penalty haul of 12 to two against a Chiefs team seemingly devoid of any discipline. While the Chiefs will have plenty of reason to complain about the Cheetahs' first try – which was clearly an illegal move missed by the referee – it was nowhere near as disgraceful as the Chiefs' deliberate illegal tactics.

It resulted in two players – Michael Fitzgerald and Ben Tameifuna – being sent to the sin bin, as the tournament's most carded team added two more to the list of bad boys. And those 12 first-half penalties were equal to what they have been averaging per game in the first six rounds.

This behaviour detracted from the good play that produced two great tries and a 14-13 lead.

After the break that trend changed dramatically, as a string of scrum penalties early in the second half turning the tide against a willing – but sadly outclassed – Cheetahs team.

The Chiefs, the most penalised team in the competition, avoided the pitfall of fatigue that often hits New Zealand sides returning from South Africa, but they could not avoid the wrath of referee Craig Joubert.

Playing without regular hooker Hika Elliott, who was red-carded in last week's loss to the Sharks in Durban, the Chiefs gave away 15 penalties including two yellow cards.

But when the Chiefs gained control up front Aaron Cruden was able to capitalise on a string of scrum penalties to go with their four tries.

"We've been training a different way and the Cheetahs have a fantastic maul and it took us a while to adapt to that," Chiefs captain Liam Messam said of the penalty count.

The bonus point win kept the Chiefs second behind the Hurricanes in the New Zealand conference, with five wins from seven games, while the Cheetahs remain at the bottom of the South African conference.

The Chiefs hit the front minutes after the kick-off when Mike Leitch, the New Zealander who captained Japan, gathered in a Sonny Bill Williams off-load to score handy to the posts.

Cruden added the extras before the penalties started to mount against the Chiefs, with Joe Pietersen landing two three-pointers to narrow the gap to one point.

Messam rammed his way through a maul to run 25 metres for the Chiefs' second try, again converted by Cruden before Johannes Prinsloo scored off a line-out drive with Pietersen landing the conversion.

Pietersen was astray with a penalty on half-time that would have given the Cheetahs the lead and they conceded two scrum penalties soon after the resumption to let the Chiefs pull away to a 20-13 lead.

When Pietersen converted the first of Heinrich Brüssow's two tries the scores were briefly level before the Chiefs pulled away with a further penalty by Cruden, who also converted tries by Sam Cane and Andrew Horrell.

With time on the clock Brüssow scored his second try but it was not enough to get the Cheetahs in the points and they leave New Zealand with two losses after going down to the Canterbury Crusaders last week.

Man of the match: Heinrich Brüssow was the Cheetahs' most influential player, his yellow card aside, Just a pity there wasn't that enthusiasm from all of his teammates. Sonny Bill Williams was at his creative and entertaining best, Liam Messam was aggressive with ball in hand and on defence, while Sam Cane worked hard, even though he was penalised on few occasions for his overly enthusiastic play. Our award goes to Chiefs flyhalf and co-captain Aaron Cruden – for the way he directed traffic, created opportunities for those around him, his work on cover defence and his flawless goal-kicking.

The scorers:

For the Chiefs:

Tries: Leitch, Messam, Cane, Horrell

Cons: Cruden 4

Pens: Cruden 3

For the Cheetahs:

Tries: Prinsloo, Brüssow 2

Cons: Pietersen 2, Du Plessis

Pens: Pietersen 2

Yellow cards: Michael Fitzgerald (Chiefs, 24 – repeated infringements, sacking the support player in a line-out), Ben Tameifuna (Chiefs, 32 – repeated infringements, illegally sacking a maul), Heinrich Brüssow (Cheetahs, 66 – professional foul, offside at a ruck)

Teams:

Chiefs: 15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Bryce Heem, 13 Seta Tamanivalu, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Tom Marshall, 10 Aaron Cruden, 9  Brad Weber, 8  Michael Leitch, 7  Sam Cane, 6  Liam Messam (captain), 5  Michael Fitzgerald, 4  Matt Symons, 3  Ben Tameifuna, 2  Quentin MacDonald, 1  Pauliasi Manu.

Replacements: 16 Rhys Marshall, 17 Siate Tokolahi, 18 Mitchell Graham, 19 Michael Allardice, 20 Johan Bardoul, 21 Augustine Pulu, 22 Andrew Horrell, 23 Marty McKenzie.

Cheetahs: 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Cornal Hendricks, 13 Johann Sadie, 12 Michael van der Spuy, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Joe Pietersen, 9 Shaun Venter, 8 Johannes Prinsloo, 7 JWillie Britz, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Francois Uys (captain), 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Nicolaas van Dyk, 2 Stephan Coetzee, 1 BG Uys.

Replacements: 16 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 17 Caylib Oosthuizen, 18 Danie Mienie, 19 Carl Wegner, 20 Tienie Burger, 21 Tian Meyer, 22 Willie du Plessis, 23 Ryno Benjamin

Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)

Assistant referees: Stuart Berry (South Africa), Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)

TMO: Glenn Newman (New Zealand)