Fresh off a bye week, the Chiefs outlasted their hosts in a physical battle as they had to overcome an early deficit and never really managed to get out of range of the Reds. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit of a dogfight,\u201d Chiefs captain Luke Jacobson told Stan Sport. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty scrappy. We were really just trying to fight for momentum. The Reds are a gutsy team, they\u2019re a tough team to beat here at home as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cReally pleased with how we\u2019ve come out on top there. I think we controlled our territory pretty well and we controlled most of the game, but the Reds stayed in it well. They can score from lots of places, they\u2019re a dangerous team so awesome to get the win there.\u201d<\/p>\n
No 8 Wallace Sititi and replacement hooker Samisoni Taukei\u2019aho both scored doubles – accounting for all four of the Chiefs\u2019 tries. Damian McKenzie was strong from the tee, converting all four tries and one of two penalty attempts. <\/p>\n
If the Chiefs were to return to the top of the table, the Reds were going to make them work for it. <\/p>\n
It took just eight minutes for the hosts to take the lead, with left wing Lachie Anderson getting the first points of the night. <\/p>\n
Sititi got his first for the night just three minutes later, before the match turned into an arm wrestle in the middle. <\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until the 36th minute that the scoreboard changed, with a McKenzie penalty nudging the Chiefs in front. <\/p>\n
They were then able to see off a dangerous Reds attack just before halftime to go into the break with all the momentum. <\/p>\n
Taukei\u2019aho\u2019s injection from the bench provided plenty, with the All Blacks hooker getting a couple of tries from the back of rolling mauls after attacking lineouts.<\/p>\n
Coach Jono Gibbes will be happy with how his side defended too, missing just eight tackles to the Reds\u2019 32; Sititi keeping busy on that side of the ball too, with 22 tackles and a turnover won. <\/p>\n
Taukie\u2019aho\u2019s second try, in the 70th minute after a yellow card to Reds prop Jeff Toomaga-Allen, seemed like it had given the side enough of a buffer to hang on for the win, but he was quickly answered by Reds teen prospect Treyvon Pritchard just four minutes later. <\/p>\n
However, the Chiefs continued to push the Reds, and Sititi\u2019s 79th-minute try sealed the win. <\/p>\n
They now move to the top of the ladder level on points with the Hurricanes but ahead on the first tiebreaking metric, number of wins. <\/p>\n
The Hurricanes will look to take the top spot back when they play Moana Pasifika on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Chiefs 31 (Wallace Sititi 2, Samisoni Taukei\u2019aho 2; Damian McKenzie 4 cons, pen)<\/p>\n
Reds 21 (Lachie Anderson, Joe Brial, Treyvon Pritchard tries; Harry McLaughlin-Phillips con, Louis Werchon 2 cons)<\/p>\n
HT: 10-7<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresh off a bye week, the Chiefs outlasted their hosts in a physical battle as they had to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17909,5499,78,111,43,139,69,55691,214823,22257,200257,214824,12884,6027],"class_list":["post-417957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-chiefs","tag-doubles","tag-in","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-reds","tag-samisoni","tag-score","tag-sititi","tag-taukeiaho","tag-wallace","tag-win"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}