One would have thought that with the Chiefs rather undistinguished history, lack of success and notorious lack of consistency that for them to reach new lows would be an almost superhuman effort.  Well we witnessed one on the week-end, the Chiefs of 2006 have not only hit rock bottom but appear to be enthusiastically digging in order to plum new depths.

This was with-out doubt the worst game of the round, and if by some remarkable chance that there is a worse game this season I hope the crowds will at least be sympathetic to the fact that the athletes in the inter-house IHC rugby tournament do suffer from massive mental and physical obstacles when trying to produce a game of quality rugby.

The turning point of course came when Stoltz, the big Cats lock got sent from the field for trying to kick Lauaki in the head.  In theme with the rest of the game, he of course missed, but did it so blatantly and openly in front of the ref that he had little choice but to send him off.  Going into the sheds with a 16 – 9 lead and against 14 men fort the rest of the match the Chiefs appeared to have the game sown up.  In fact to lose from here would require a gutless, haplessly disorganised all-round shocker of an effort heavily laced with blundering incompetence and mind boggling stupidity.  The Chiefs didn’t fail to disappoint….

What was worse than the final 21 -16 score-line was that if it wasn’t for the noodle-legged kicking performance of the Cats the Chiefs could have lost by more, no less than 7 shots at goal missed and add to that a couple of drop-kicks.  To be fair the Cats never looked like scoring a try but when they’re up against 15 men all willing and able to concede a penalty at the drop of a hat who needs to score tries?? 

So where to now for the Chiefs??

On the optimistic side one could say that it couldn’t get any worse.  One could suggest that the Chiefs go back to basics; such a catching a ball, introducing themselves to their team-mates and looking before passing would be a start.  One supposes that after watching these so-called “professional rugby players it gives hope to the likes of you and me that we to could suddenly be good enough to make the super 14 ranks, as certainly the only pre-requisite to make this current Chiefs team is the ability to tie ones shoelaces (though getting the boot on the right foot is optional). 

To all, if you’re like me and had the extreme misfortune of watching the game you have my sympathies, if even worse you were like we and stumbled out of bed at some ungodly hour to watch again my condolences and possibly the suggestion of doing away with an alarm clock on the week-end might be beneficial…