dismantled a Blues<\/a> team fighting for a third-place finish and said the team\u2019s depth was clear to see.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019ve had some great battles with the Blues boys over the years. It speaks volumes about the depth we have here at the Chiefs. We have that mindset of ‘next man up’.”<\/p>\n
Loose forward Wallace Sititi, who captained the Chiefs for the first time, was one of those who took his chance. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys who get the opportunity make the most of it \u2013 we saw that at the weekend with the guys giving it a crack. It\u2019s pleasing when you beat a New Zealand team by that many points\u2026 but it\u2019s a different beast, finals rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chiefs, who finished second on the table behind the Hurricanes, host the fifth-placed Reds on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
The Queenslanders pushed the Chiefs close in Brisbane recently \u2013 closing to 24-21 before the visitors pulled away thanks to a try from Wallace Sititi, converted by McKenzie, to win 31-21.<\/p>\n
The Chiefs are no strangers to playoffs rugby \u2013 they have lost the last three grand finals (to the Crusaders in 2023, Blues in 2024 and Crusaders last year) \u2013 and there will be intrigue as to whether they can clear that final hurdle this time, assuming they get that far.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been there before,\u201d McKenzie added. \u201cWe\u2019ve had many experiences of playoffs rugby over the last couple of years. This is not just any other game, it\u2019s a quarter-final.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the start of the year, you want to be in contention. Now that we are in contention, it\u2019s about focusing on what\u2019s in front of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
McKenzie, who has played 74 Tests, will likely start ahead of Josh Jacomb.<\/p>\n
A victory for the Chiefs would likely put them into a semifinal against the Crusaders<\/a> or Blues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chiefs and All Blacks No.10 Damian McKenzie is preparing for a return in his team\u2019s Super Rugby playoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[33339,17909,56380,49155,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-457823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-blues","tag-chiefs","tag-crusaders","tag-hurricanes","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457823","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=457823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}