Weber amping for 100th match

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Weber said it wasn't an ordinary game. It was one he would remember forever, and it was something he had been eyeing up for some time.

 

"I'm stoked to get there, and happy to be playing the Blues for it as well. I couldn't have asked for a better team to play against for my 100th," he said.

 

"There's no bigger game in a Chiefs' jersey than against the Blues. Going up there and getting a win at Eden Park have been some of the sweetest victories I've been part of and, hopefully, we'll get another one," he said.

 

Weber said he had plenty of reasons to thank the Chiefs for how his career had turned out.

 

He was dropped from the Otago team and was playing for its development side when asked to play for Waikato. Then, after only two games, Chiefs' coach Dave Rennie visited him at his Hamilton base and offered him a Super Rugby contract.

 

Rennie, and assistant coach Andrew Strawbridge, worked with him in developing his game. That approach left him feeling that the Chiefs was where he wanted to play.

 

Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan expects the Blues will want to make amends for their last-minute loss to the Hurricanes.

 

 

They improved since their warm-up contact last month in Queenstown. It would be necessary to turn up from the first minute. They were a powerful side across the field. While losing, they were the weekend's stand-out side, he said.

 

"They looked really structured, hungry, and for large portions of that game, they were clearly the best side, so, they'll be hurting from the loss, because they probably didn't deserve it," he said.

 

"It just goes to show, we've said it a million times, at this level you can't switch off for a minute, because the margins are small. And even when they are relatively large, they can be eaten up pretty quickly," he said.

 

Like the Blues, the Chiefs have missed a game due to Moana Pasifika's brush with Covid. It denied them a chance to give more players game time, but injuries to their blindside flankers resulted in All Blacks' lock Tupou Vaa'i filling the berth in Auckland.

 

"We've got four other sixes injured at the moment, so [we've] almost been forced into it. Having said that, he's a pretty athletic individual, and I have got no concerns that he'll do the job."

 

The other consideration was with five quality locks there had not been a chance to play them all.

 

"So, we need to get some minutes into them knowing that we've got a big few weeks ahead of us," he said.

 

While the postponement of their game against Moana Pasifika denied them game time at the weekend, they played an internal match that had been 'pretty brutal', he said.

 

"There was a couple of guys that stood out and they forced their way into the match 23 as a result, so it was worthwhile," he said.

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