@kirwan Ardie is better in those wider channels where he will have one oon ones to bust through a tackle, in the middle with more traffic he is less effective, although sometimes when Ardie gets his leg drive going he might bust through but ends up ahead of his cleaners and gets isolated.
Ardie also needs to play 7, or sit on the bench for 60.
Which is why I prefer Mo'unga off the bench. His style of play can really exploit tired defenses. When he starts against the more physical sides he goes missing completely. Not that Beauden is a natural 10 that will control the game, but he can handle the physical stuff a lot better and is not afraid to run hard and straight when required.
This game was tailor made for DMac, loose and against a defences that cannot keep connected. I still wouldn't have him in the 23 against defensively adept teams.
So Akira Ioane and Jordie Barrett are going to be the top two players on the Fern's MoM table after the Rugby Championship. Hats off to them on their hard work on developing themselves and delivering on their potential. Hoping that both can develop further into dominant world-class players and even all-time greats in the next few years.
@crucial I like how he seems to make the gain line. Just one of those things he seems to do well. I think Foster would find it difficult to move away from Havilli though.
Some of those passes DH had to receive were excruciating. If they play BB and TJP again they should choose for 12 who ever can catch the ball despite how bad the pass is. I didn't actually see the one per game dud pass from Weber though, thought he was very good.
I'll have to rewatch it but Samsoni was attracting several defenders at a time, not going backwards and solid with ball security, given last week they gave Akira a lot of 2 tackler attention it would be rather mouthwatering to see them both on the field.
Under Shag, Cane got left out of the starting line-up of a WC semi-final.
Yeah, the one bloke who would have caused England serious problems from the word go.
That loss still rankles with me - and not just for the Cane omission. Some of the dumbest play I've seen from an AB team for years, mainly from the senior players
It’s taken me a long time to accept that Sam Whitelock might be a decent captain after his facepalm to Farrell late on, which effectively ended what little glimmer of hope we might have had of pinching that match
I don't blame him for that - it was a ridiculous intervention by the referee.
Farrell was being a prick. But he bit the bait
That's not in contention. It's the bullshit reversal from Owen that's the issue.
I agree. But in the current climate the retaliator almost always gets pinged. So we can argue but at the end of the day he needs to keep his discipline there
I think there was some candidates in the pack in particular
The props were on top in the scrum but didn't get much reward from the ref. Scrafton seems to be in good form. The loosies were mostly good until the lack of possession resulted in some missed tackles. Choat in particular got through a lot of work on defence (14 tackles no misses)
May rewatch but they seemed to be the only ones without a glaring mistake.
Penalty in front of the ref, didn't see a mistake, unnecessary forward pass.. ah oops answered. Anyway, apart from mistakes, good selection although I thought Sam came more into the fore later on. Nugget was mostly excellent, again but I worry about our replacements..
