Chiefs raise the bat at Bay Oval in Super Rugby Pacific dispatching of Force

Friday, 25 April 2025

At Bay Oval, Mt Maunganui: Chiefs 56 (Emoni Narawa try 10min, Samisoni Taukei’aho try 21min, Kaylum Boshier try 37min, Ollie Norris try 43min, Cortez Ratima tries 46min, 57min, Luke Jacobson try 69min, Daniel Rona try 77min; Josh Jacomb 5 con, 2 pen) Force 22 (Bayley Kuenzle try 5min, Harry Potter tries 11min, 54min; Ben Donaldson 2 con, pen). HT: 25-15.

Yellow card: Sio Tomkinson (Force) 20min

There’s been a few half centuries posted at Bay Oval, and now the Chiefs have become the latest to raise the bat.

In what was a first-ever rugby fixture to be staged at Mt Maunganui’s pristine cricket turf, coming just 20 days after the Black Caps’ season-closing ODI against Pakistan, the Super Rugby Pacific table-toppers put on a fine knock as they dispatched the fifth-placed Force to the boundary in an emphatic 56-22 victory.

In front of a sold-out crowd of around 11,000 who weathered the wind, and also later the rain, on the grassy embankments, the Chiefs gave the Super Rugby-starved Tauranga locals (the last game there back in 2013) a performance to cherish, in an eight-tries-to-three bonus-point victory that continues their push towards trying to secure top seeding for the playoffs.

Cortez Ratima scored two tries in the Chiefs’ big Super Rugby Pacific win over the Force in Mt Maunganui on Friday night.

In a match that saw hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho become the Chiefs’ 12th centurion, and celebrate his milestone match with a try, it also marked a successful return to action for star All Blacks loose forward Wallace Sititi, in his much-earlier-than-anticipated return from a knee injury.

The 2024 World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year, who had been expected to miss the entire Super season after surgery in January, was injected off the bench for the final 10 minutes, and that was more than enough for the 22-year-old to give a reminder of all his star-quality, managing to carve out the sixth-most-metres of any player, with his 47 from seven carries, including one particularly trademark big burst and offload, which will have a few opposition teams on full alert.

Sititi wasn’t the only Chief returning to the fray, with All Blacks lock Josh Lord getting through 55 minutes on return from the knee injury he suffered in round three, while former All Blacks halfback Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi was back after damaging a shoulder in pre-season training, and Kaleb Trask made his first Super appearance in 35 months.

However, it didn’t end all rosy for Clayton McMillan’s men, with an early failed HIA for prop Aidan Ross followed up by the loss of All Blacks midfielder Anton Lienert-Brown, who, just a week after returning from four games out with a leg injury, was off at halftime, and sporting a sling at fulltime, while Trask, who had replaced him, lasted less than quarter of an hour, thanks to an apparent ankle problem.

Wallace Sititi made an immediate impact on his return to action with the Chiefs following knee surgery.

That had forced the hosts, with their 6-2 bench split, into quite the reshuffle, which saw them end with flanker Kaylum Boshier and halfback Cortez Ratima as their wingers, the latter having already played a blinder in a two-try display alongside young first-five Josh Jacomb, who controlled things nicely in the absence of Damian McKenzie, who was resting a minor hand injury, with Shaun Stevenson (83 metres, two linebreaks, four defenders beaten) also having a field-day at fullback.

Those two scores from the All Blacks No 9, in the 46th and 57th minutes, were killer blows to a game Force side who had been set back by late withdrawals of captain Jeremy Williams and former Chief Atu Moli, but who yet again proved no match for the Chiefs, with this the fourth-straight time the western Australians had conceded 53-plus on the road to them.

In a game where the wind made for tricky high-ball takes, and the Chiefs far from had things their own way at the breakdown, the home side ended up enjoying a whopping 62% possession and dominating across the stat lines, but they had earlier on been made to work pretty hard for a 25-15 halftime lead in what was quite the crazy first spell.

Force centre Sio Tomkinson was yellow-carded for his high hit on Chiefs first-five Josh Jacomb.

After the Force were pinged off the very first play of the game for obstruction that allowed Jacomb to open the scoring off the tee, the visitors then had the first try of the match in the fifth minute when Taukei’aho’s early lineout issues had Darcy Swain snaffle a steal and allow an easy stroll in for Bayley Kuenzle.

And while Emoni Narawa quickly struck back, racing 25 metres after latching onto a Shaun Stevenson chip kick, it had nothing on the rapid hit-back of the Force, who caught not only the Chiefs, but also the Sky TV coverage napping, when Ben Donaldson raced to halfway and kicked off long, and Harry Potter produced some magic with a searing chase to finish.

A yellow card to Sio Tomkinson, for a high hit on Jacomb, then proved costly for the Force, with the Chiefs capitalising immediately through Taukei’aho, who was able to sprint 15 metres after Ratima was able to make good on a messy lineout transfer.

And to cap it all off, Boshier was then rewarded with a try that was initially denied by referee James Doleman, but, after play had gone 100 metres downfield, was eventually looked at by TMO Glenn Newman, and after a heap of investigation, it was duly decided the No 7 had not lost possession.