Chiefs lose DMac, Lord and Tupaea to injury in 49-34 win over Brumbies

The Chiefs have maintained their winning start to the Super Rugby Pacific season, after beating the Brumbies 49-34

In a week where Clayton McMillan announced the shock news of a departure to Munster at season’s end, it was made abundantly clear the Chiefs coach won’t be having a smooth ride in his final tilt at a title, after not one, but three, All Blacks limped off in the 49-34 victory at FMG Stadium Waikato.

The right knee of star playmaker McKenzie will be the biggest worry, after the fullback lay on the ground and required medical attention before making his way off with eight minutes left.

He had an ice pack applied and was gingerly making his way through the post-game handshakes, after a high-scoring encounter where lock Josh Lord (fifth minute) and Quinn Tupaea (69th minute) were also forced from the field with injury.

It was a third second-half surge from three that in the end got the Chiefs home, having gone to the break locked at 15-15, before yet again breaking clear in what was a six-tries-apiece contest.

The Brumbies, coming off a shock 45-42 home loss to the Force, proved a dangerous beast, and it took the Chiefs till the death to close it out, with Josh Jacomb nailing a penalty with five minutes to play to put the margin to eight, before Anton Lienert-Brown grabbed his second try right on fulltime.

Replacement Gideon Wrampling also bagged a double, in what was just his fifth cap, including a brilliant score early in the first half with his first touch, on the back of Quinn Tupaea’s excellent chip-and-chase effort.

In front of a sparse crowd of 11,544 for what is their only home afternoon game of the season, no doubt the hefty increase in ticket prices for the Rugby and Rhythms event had played a big part.

It was quite the open affair, as the Chiefs, for the fifth time in their last six games at their home venue, piled on 43-plus points, and it might have been the first day of autumn, but this may as well have been the height of summer, Hamilton the hottest place in the country at kickoff time, at a sweltering 27 degrees.

[Source: Stuff.co]