Coach Clayton McMillan said, "They would have been disappointed. They would have been elated to play over in Tonga, and it looked like a great spectacle despite the weather.
"It was entertaining to watch all the theatrics on the sideline, but they would have been disappointed to have lost that game [to the Highlanders].
"We're anticipating the Moana team will be at its best because they'll need to bank some points and stay in the race."
In selecting the Chiefs team for the game, McMillan said there was some rotation in their loose forward mix. Wallace Sititi has retained his place at No8. Luke Jacobson is on the open-side flank, with Simon Parker on the blindside.
"Wallace has made every post a winner and gives us good balance with the profile of the other loose forwards that we've got."
Sickness issues and Malachi Rampling's absence with the NZ Under-20s, meant they had less to choose from.
All Black first five-eighths Damian McKenzie was omitted as he was recovering from a head knock and having a rest week.
But McMillan said he was doing well and had bounced back quickly after the game.
Flanker Samipeni Finau is on a managed return-to-play plan after suffering a heavy knock to an AC joint. He is expected to be out of action for three to four weeks.
Fullback Shaun Stevenson is expected to be ready to play next week and lock Josh Lord a week after that.
McMillan said while they still had some depth, they wouldn't want many more injuries.
"We recognised that we aren't the only team affected by injury. There are a lot of other teams that are in a similar boat or have been in a similar boat, and we've said multiple times that you need to rely on the depth of your squad and be turning that squad over on a semi-regular basis to prepare yourself for when these situations arise and I think we've done that pretty well.
"We're a contracted squad of 38 players, and another 10 young guys are coming through our pathway programme on national development contracts, and some wider training group members.
"But we put them all on the same boat. They're all part of our team, so you want to take care of them."