Giant All Blacks lock Brodie Retallick has shown his spectacular ballhandling skills with a tricky offload to highlight the Chiefs' 26-16 win over Highlanders in their Super Rugby Pacific opener at Queenstown.
Returning to the the competition, after a stint with Kobelco Steelers in Japan, Retallick was quickly back into his stride, storming around the Wakatipu club ground like he'd never been away.
But his clever, behind-the-back, no-look try assist to Emoni Narawa provided the talking point of his team's performance, as they drew first blood among NZ contenders in the newlook Pacific format.
Already ahead 18-9 soon after halftime, the Chiefs mounted an attack that saw winger Shaun Stevenson slice through the defence, sending powerful No.8 Pita Gus Sowakula into the Highlanders 22. When the ball came left, Narawa found Retallick galloping towards the line and when he was cornered, delivered a pinpoint pass to his fullback looping around the outside.
"I was actually so tired, I just saw someone and chucked it out the back," he admitted to Sky Sport afterwards. "Pretty happy it went to hand, to be fair."
The Chiefs had largely dominated the encounter and probably should have lead by more, if they had managed any kind of control at lineout time, when they could not seem to secure their own throw-ins.
Co-captain Sam Cane began his bid to regain All Blacks leadership with the opening try, running off the side of a scrum near the line and taking the final pass from midfielder Alex Nankivell to roll over and score.
Sowakula began that movement and finishes the next one, faking right from the back of the scrum, charging left down a narrow shortside and hurdling Highlanders captain Aaron Smith to score in the corner.
Narawa's try soon after the restart put the Chiefs 23-9 ahead, but the Highlanders found a spark off the bench, when Folau Fakatava replaced Smith early. Flanker James Lentjes seemed to score, when he was on the end of a backline move, but the try was ruled out for a forward pass in the build-up.
The Chiefs scrum was penalised and from the ensuing lineout, the southern forwards lay seige to the tryline and replacement prop Daniel Lienert-Brown was driven over, bringing his team within a converted try of forcing 'golden point'.
But Bryn Gatland, who has previously kicked the Highlanders to victory over the Chiefs, slotted a late penalty to push the Chiefs clear for good.
Chiefs 26 (Cane, Narawa & Sowakula tries; Ioane 2 penalties & conversion, Gatland penalty) Highlanders 16 (Lienert-Brown try; Hunt 3 penalties & conversion)
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