Hollow draw for Rennie

Chiefs coach David Rennie said that his team's remarkable comeback against the Cheetahs should not cloud how bad they were in the first half.

The defending champions pulled off a second consecutive last-minute draw in Bloemfontein, after pulling off an almost identical fight back against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld last week.

However, Rennie was not satisfied with the performance and said that although it was a relief to salvage three log points once again, that does not mean that trailing by 24 points at half-time is acceptable.

“We were in trouble in the first half. So you can cloud things and say that it was a great comeback in the second, which it was, but the way we played in the first 40 minutes is unforgivable,” he said.

Rennie said that they cannot afford to let teams get away from them like that, as a better team would have made them pay for it.

Against teams that are top of the ladder you aren't going to come back like that. We're pretty disappointed," he said.

The Chiefs coach said that whilst it was encouraging that his team played hard to the final whistle again, they have some serious work to do in order to ensure that they give themselves a chance to defend their title.

“We can talk about character, but we were bad in the first half. We got beaten to all loose balls and didn't defend with the sort of intensity that is required,” he said.

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