Sonny Bill Williams
Liam Messam
The Chiefs will be without a host of players next season including captain Liam Messam who will play Sevens in a bid to make the Olympics.
Messam and star centre Sonny Bill Williams will be part of a large group of players that will not be around next season, and coach Dave Rennie admitted that his captain will be a massive loss to the side.
“Not just his playing ability but his leadership – he’s very charismatic, incredibly passionate – he’ll be very difficult to replace.
“But it’s exciting for him. He obviously won a gold medal at Commonwealth Games and to try and win an Olympic gold would be pretty special so we’ll fully support it and who knows, he may be back in ’17,” he said.
On top of Messam, who looks likely to be joined in focusing on Sevens by Williams, the Chiefs will be missing up to 9 other players next season.
There is an exodus of outside backs heading overseas with Tom Marshall going to England (Gloucester), Hosea Gear to France (Clermont), Bryce Heem to England (Worcester) and Tim Nanai-Williams to Japan.
There are plenty of forwards on the way out as well with locks Matt Symons (London Irish) and Mike FitzGerald (Leicester) heading to England and prop Ben Tameifuna set to play for Racing Metro in France.
Rennie said that there will be quite a few new faces next year, but added that it is to be expected.
“There are still a lot of spots open and wider training group spots of course, but there’ll obviously be a fair few new faces coming in which is exciting,” Rennie said.
“There might be 10 or 11 changes with guys getting other opportunities and so on, but that’s pretty standard. We normally lose a quarter to a third of our side each year.
“More often than not it’s been some of the older guys heading off later in their career but last year Bundee [Aki] left and Gareth Anscombe and guys like that who potentially could have played another 6, 7 or 8 years in New Zealand so I suppose that trend is more common now and we’re seeing the same thing with the likes of Tameifuna and Tom Marshall,” he added.
The Chiefs boss said that bowing out in the quarterfinals was a poor way to see off the players that are leaving.
“Obviously we’re happy to be part of the playoffs but the goal was to win a championship so to tip out in the quarters is bloody disappointing and not the way we wanted to send off all the guys who are leaving,” Rennie said.
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