Coach Clayton McMillan hails players as Waikato Chiefs return to winning ways in Super Rugby

Waikato Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan praised his team's ability to bounce back from defeat after Saturday's 46-10 thrashing of the Otago Highlanders saw them return to the summit of the Super Rugby Pacific standings.

The win, featuring a commanding second half display in which the Chiefs scored 33 unanswered points, came a week after a loss at the hands of the New South Wales Waratahs and took the Chiefs above the Canterbury Crusaders on points.

"It's nice that we're top of the table but we've got to keep grinding and finding ways to win better," said McMillan. "Last week was a real uppercut.

"When you have a loss it forces you to look a little bit deeper at why that came about. We've had a full week's preparation and we've certainly trained hard to find the margins that we knew we needed to find to get better.

"It's not perfect, but we're learning some good things about our game this week and progressively this season. As long as we keep doing that and giving ourselves a chance."

The Chiefs and the Crusaders have both amassed 32 points from seven wins in the opening 10 rounds, with McMillan's side leading their fellow New Zealanders due to their defence.

The Hamilton-based outfit have conceded 212 points, the lowest in the competition, compared to 250 by the Crusaders and that record is the key difference between the teams as the latter stages of the league phase approach.

"The competition's that tight that all of those things are going to have an impact in the last round of two," McMillan said after another strong defensive display. "That was one of the pleasing things.

"Once we had achieved the bonus point we were pretty resolute. They had a couple of sets down by our line and we bit down on the mouthguard and denied them, which was pleasing.

"There have been times over the last month or so when we've given up some cheaper tries and it's cost us." REUTERS