Richard Kahui's return a boost for Chiefs

The return of star centre Richard Kahui is one of a number of positives the Chiefs are taking out of Saturday's first Super 14 pre-season match against the Highlanders in Dunedin.

The visitors went down 31-24 in their first hit-out of 2010, but a strong team effort, the return of a couple of key players and the absence of major injuries is encouraging for last year's beaten finalists.

Kahui was eager to get back on the park following a serious shoulder problem and coach Ian Foster was delighted to have him back in action, along with fill-in captain Sione Lauaki, who missed most of the Air New Zealand Cup with a foot injury.

"For him and Sione it's been a long time away," Foster said.

Both players were involved in the first two quarters of the match before coming off at halftime.

"Richard even pleaded with me and ended up getting time in the last quarter," Foster said.

"It was a good step for him, he's still got a couple of hurdles to climb."

Lauaki limped off with a slight knee strain and loose forward Colin Bourke suffered a rib injury, but neither was deemed too serious.

The Chiefs began well and led 19-5 after the first quarter but were overhauled late in the match.

Foster, who used a total of 26 players during the game, said he was pleased to see some of the more inexperienced players fit in well.

"As a coach I guess you don't walk away from pre-season overly impressed with anything, you just want to get a handle on where you're at for the first game. So it was a good one for a number of new guys for the Chiefs to get a run around," he said.

"We had guys getting used to the contact again. We showed we're in a pretty good place with our set piece.

"We certainly show-ed, particularly in the first half when we were up 19-5, that our attack structure was pretty good. I think by the end of the game we clearly looked a little bit fatigued."

Young Counties-Manukau fullback Tim Nanai-Williams was impressive in his first outing and he crossed for one of the Chiefs' four tries. Other tries went to winger Jason Hona and front-rowers Aled de Malmanche and Hikairo Forbes.

"Overall I just found the squad knew what we were doing with the ball and we just have to improve a little bit on our defence side," Foster said, with the Chiefs conceding five tries.

The squad now head to Whangamata for a training camp.

- © Fairfax NZ News