Chiefs in good place for title defence From the moment he returned to pre-season training, co-captain Craig Clarke noticed a different atmosphere in the Chiefs' changing sheds. Usually the first handful of summer gatherings at the franchise involve players and coaches vowing to right the wrongs of the previous Super Rugby campaign. This time there were satisfied smiles and a target quickly set to match their remarkable 2012 championship story. It is a lot different. We were all about getting respect back last season, which has often ended up being a goal of ours," Clarke told NZ Newswire. Now we're in a position where we got that respect. We want to build on that, we've got full buy-in that we can repeat what we did last season. Such confidence is borne out of the surprisingly high standards reached under new coach Dave Rennie in 2012, supported by the nous of long-serving All Blacks assistant Wayne Smith. They'll miss Sonny Bill Williams' advantage line prowess and the remarkable nose for a try of prop Sona Taumalolo but otherwise Rennie can field a settled side, boosted by the recruitment of hardened provincial forwards Ross Filipo and Nick Crosswell. Clarke expects opponents to target the Chiefs with all guns blazing this year but that will be nothing new. They spent most of the second half of last year leading the standings so were regularly targeted. After winning all three trial games this month, Clarke, who leaves for club rugby in Ireland at the end of the season, expects the Chiefs to hit the ground running from week one. We should be, and we are, slightly ahead of where we were at this stage last season. There's certainly connections there already. Unlike last season when we came in with a new coaching regime and a group of new players, we've had that flow over. BIGGEST GAINS: Gareth Anscombe (five-eighth), Nick Crosswell (flanker), Ross Filipo (lock) BIGGEST LOSSES: Sonny Bill Williams (inside centre), Kane Thompson (No.8), Sona Taumalolo (prop)