Sometimes it’s just not your night. After the Chiefs, the slight favourites heading into the match, lost the Super Rugby Pacific grand final to the Crusaders, skipper Luke Jacobson could not attend the post-game press conference because he was missing a tooth.
Head coach Clayton McMillan delivered the news to the assembled media before things got under way. Sitting alongside lock and stand-in skipper Tupou Vaa’i, he did in the understated way in which his reign at the Chiefs became known for.
“Luke lost a tooth and he has to go and get that sorted out,” McMillan said by way of apology.
McMillan now heads to Munster in Ireland after leading the Chiefs to three finals in a row. They have won none of them, which will sting enormously, especially this latest 16-12 defeat in Christchurch.
“Everyone knows we’ve been to the final three times and haven’t got the job done,” McMillan said. “But in a weird sort of way I’m at peace because I know how hard our people worked.
“It has never been a case, and it wasn’t tonight, of a lack of effort. We just came up against a really good Crusaders team who squeezed us in all the right places and deserved to win.”
McMillan will leave with good wishes from around New Zealand, not just within the Chiefs region.
After taking over from Warren Gatland’s underwhelming return to Hamilton, the franchise became one of the most consistent teams in the competition under McMillan.
That was certainly true this year. They appeared to have the deepest squad and the most consistent No.10 in the country in the form of Damian McKenzie and it was apparent that everyone in the group believed it would be a case of third time lucky.
It may sound trite but the Crusaders had a little too much finals intelligence last night in getting to a lead and defending it superbly in the conditions they love so much.
Which is not to say they vaunted pack had it easy. They gave up two early scrum penalties and a try for prop George Dyer but once they solved the set piece issue they took a grip on the game they never relinquished.
McKenzie and the Chiefs’ backs were starved of possession and could not find a way back into the game via their kicking strategy which was slightly off and dominated by the home side.
“You know what’s coming,” McMillan said of the expected onslaught from the Crusaders’ forwards. “You’re not surprised by anything.”
McMillan said it would be up to the media and others to decide on his legacy at the Chiefs and he is right. He couldn’t add to the franchise’s two titles but the 50-year-old former policeman will leave it in a better place.
“He’s a man with a lot of mana… he’s a Chiefs man through and through and he’s surely going to be missed,” Vaa’i said.
Before leaving, though, McMillan could not resist a final comment on the Crusaders’ controversial cowbell ban at their stadium last night. Unlike the bells, it struck the right note.
“Coming from the Bay of Plenty… I understand that they’re an acquired taste,” he said. “You give them a little bit of time and you grow to love them and the crowd could have grown to love them tonight. It would have added to the drama of the day.”
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