Castle - Started his first game against the Crusaders to replace the suspended Manu and forced the Crusaders to remove Hewitt after 20 minutes!  With Manu back this week, don't expect to see much of Ben for the rest of the season. No complaints about this, Manu has been massive so far.

Ormond - Started against the Blues and caused some real damage with his hard running. Back on the bench for the Crusaders and when he came on, he was maybe too fired up and lost focus on the rugby.

Jackson - Had a great game against the Canes, was OK for the Reds but then was benched for Hill against the Blues. That seemed a good option given Hill's more "direct" approach but Hill was retained for the Crusaders and combined with Maisey, this makes the Chiefs one dimensional in my opinion. Now Jacko has injured his hamstring trying to catch up with Samuel L Jackson so it may well be Hill for a while now.

Senio - Played the last 30 minutes or so against the Crusaders, was't sighted much behind a retreating pack. Boss is back now so no more Senio.

McQuoid - Has been on the bench for most if not all games so far, played 30 minutes against the Crusaders at full back and looked lively. I would love to see him at 2nd 5 instead of the mundane Maisey.

Against the Crusaders Foster changed the whole backline in the second half with Senio, Jackson and McQuoid replacing Kelleher, Maisey and Crichton. A strange move this as it meant the whole style had to change and given the forwards couldn't get any decent ball, poor Jacko had a bit of a shocker as did Hill at 2nd 5, as Carter ran around him with ease.

Of the rest of the Chiefs, Willis has been excellent, a great acquisition for Waikato (unfortunately!). Robinson is as committed as ever and along with the beanpole Hohneck, the lineout has been fairly effective. Holah, Gibbes and Bates have been generally good as has Lauaki as impact sub. Kelleher is an improvement on Duggan and Boss but still seems generally untidy with his passing. It is outside Kelleher where the problems are. Hill is OK except he always makes a few blunders a game (knock-ons & bad kicks) and is much too fond of taking on the line himself and other than a couple of good set moves, the backline isn't clicking. Maisey is just average at 2nd 5, seems to make tackles and can take the ball up, but no danger of line breaks there. Outside Maisey, Lowen has looked dangerous and the wings Sivivatu and Fa'atau are bursting with pace and look keen for work and Sivivatu looks to be growing in confidence every week. But they almost never see the ball, given the Chiefs style is just to keep it in the forwards and inside backs and rumble. The commitment of the forwards to the ruck and maul has been excellent and a lesson to the likes of the Blues who were committing only a couple to a ruck and being knocked over. But against a side like the Crusaders, once they get going, you have to do a bit more than just keep the ball. At full back, Crichton has mixed the sublime with the ridiculous with ease, I can't believe that any player can be so good and so bad in the same game.

A prediction for the Chiefs? I'd pick 9th, they are definitely better than last season but they have to move up from "difficult to beat" if they are going to get many points from their travels. The Waratahs are coming off 2 defeats in South Africa and their forwards need to be taken on from the start as their backline looks a lot slicker than the Chiefs. The Waratahs have made wholesale changes for this game so hopefully they will struggle with combinations.