Chiefs assistant coach David Hill said competing against the five-time champions demands that the set-piece is rock solid.
"You need to be disciplined. You need to be on your game for the whole 80 minutes. [They're a] great team, great players, great coaches, no surprises there. The lessons are that we've been there before. We've been in the game for 60 minutes. But we need to stay in it for as long as possible.
"We know that we need all 23 guys ready to turn up to play and if we do all that we give ourselves a chance to be in the fight in the last 10 minutes, then that's all we're after," he said.
"But, at this stage of the season, it is very much focusing on ourselves and [being] aware of what the opposition can do," he said.
Hill said the weekend 22-24 loss to the Blues had revealed areas the Chiefs needed to improve. There were positives in some aspects of their play, although they hadn't quite executed some specific areas they were looking to improve.
"We were frustrated with a couple of our inaccuracies exiting, and some general play. It was more frustrating going through the review and realising we weren't far away, and had opportunities to win. It's pretty much on us to improve in a lot of areas," he said.
No more injuries occurred, and there was light on the horizon with players not far from returning.
Hill said they were happy with the effort of All Blacks' lock Tupou Vaa'i playing on the blindside flank. He said players like Kaylum Boshier, Tom Florence and Naitoa Ah Kuoi were all capable of playing multiple positions to give the squad the depth and ability to cover injuries when they occur.