All Blacks star Wallace Sititi to make early return for Super Rugby Pacific ladder-leading Chiefs

Monday, 7 April 2025

This excellent piece is from The Post. You can read more of their stories here.

All Blacks star Wallace Sititi is set to make a surprise early return from injury for the Chiefs prior to the Super Rugby Pacific playoffs.

The dynamic loose forward, who stormed onto the scene in 2024, so much so that he went on to be crowned World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year, as well as All Blacks Player of the Year, picked up a knee injury on the national side’s end-of-year northern tour that had initially seemed destined to keep him out of the entire Super season.

Sititi had surgery on his right meniscus in mid-January, with the Chiefs declaring the 22-year-old was “not expected to have much on-field involvement in the 2025 season as a result”.

However, with his side freshly-installed back at the top of the competition table after a gritty 27-15 win over previous ladder leaders the Reds in Hamilton on Friday night, Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan was happy to give an already chuffed fan base further reason to smile when asked how Sititi’s rehab was going, considering he’d been spotted in and around the team’s training field in recent times.

“He’s doing really well with his recovery,” McMillan revealed. “He’s almost back into full training, he hasn’t really had a full-contact training yet, and we’ve got to be smart around making sure that he goes through all those sorts of progressions.

“But he’s tracking in the right direction that within the next month he might be a contender, which is probably a lot earlier than what we had anticipated.”

That timeframe would see Sititi back in action well before the playoffs, which start on the first weekend of June, and even before the Chiefs’ second bye, which comes in the third-to-last-round (May 16-17).

It will also present McMillan with an embarrassment of riches in the back-row, with already two All Blacks in captain Luke Jacobson and Samipeni Finau, the latter who has often been used as an explosive bench option this season, with Simon Parker having shown his own storming performances, Jahrome Brown having proved a solid recruit from the Brumbies, and the experienced Kaylum Boshier and youngster Malachi Wrampling also hovering amongst the contracted squad.

Sititi’s brilliance at No 8 last year had forced Jacobson to move to No 7, before the youngster then made a fine fist of the No 6 jersey at international level, so could clearly be an option in either spot, for a team that’s already renowned for their menacing loose-forward play.

That much was evident in a hard-fought win over the Reds in their top-of-the-table round-seven clash at a rain-soaked FMG Stadium Waikato, where the non-pretty nature was music to the ears of McMillan, who also noted the trend of teams coming out “a little bit scratchy” after the bye.

“We were still able to finish the game really strong, show some positive moments, we were put under some pressure, we responded well, so overall, a pretty decent effort,” McMillan said, after his side managed to turn around a faltering lineout, and up their accuracy, with the help of an early introduction of no fewer than three current All Blacks forwards.

“I think, ultimately, it was one of those games that you actually want to have at this stage of the year, where it’s a little bit untidy and it’s a little bit of an arm-wrestle, because these are the sorts of games you’re going to get going forward.

“Most teams want to turn up and play on a balmy Saturday afternoon and be able to throw the ball around, that’s generally what we and the fans want to see. But the reality is, as we get through the year, it’s going to shift in the other direction, so you have to be able to play multiple ways. We were far from the finished product, but I think that we showed signs that we have the ability to do that, roll up our sleeves.”

Having surrendered their position as ladder leaders for just the single week, the Chiefs now have a two-point buffer at the top, ahead of the Crusaders.

“It’s nice to look at the table and see that you’re there, but you’ve got to stay there. And it’s not easy,” McMillan said, as his side now look ahead to a clash against the Waratahs in Sydney on Friday night.

Last year’s wooden-spooners had made an early impression, winning their first three games, though are now coming off two poor performances on this side of the ditch, after their 57-12 humiliation by the Hurricanes and their 45-28 second-half shocker against Moana Pasifika.

“They’ll be fired up, it’s always a tough place to go and play, they’ve proved that already this year, so we’ll be under no illusions around the challenge there,” McMillan said, of a side which is 3-0 at home this year, though who haven’t beaten the Chiefs in their last eight match-ups, dating back to 2017.

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