Springboks v All Blacks
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@ACT-Crusader
I agree with this. Aaron Smith is brilliant but I think TJs ability to clear the ball no matter how it comes back is stronger. He is not pressured at the breakdown the way Smith sometimes is. I thought there were two poor passes out of what seemed like the most passes ever by a half back. -
@Tregaskis I was going to mention this. If you ever wanted evidence of the impact the AB bench offers compared to other teams this was the game. Most of the AB subs came on between 63-68 mins and the score was still 29-15 with 10 mins to go. Nearly as many points (28) were scored in the final 10 mins as in the first 70 mins.
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Re TJP/Smith, I think you have to look at the impact his pass makes on the first five's game. I thought BB looked a bit flat in H1, but it could well be that the relative inaccuracy and delay in TJP's pass meant he lost some time in terms of both waiting and having to think about the catch -- a half second at that level probably makes a ton of difference. But great to have a no.2 playing as well as TJP, and TKB is still pretty sold.
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Someone mentioned the Beast holding on to Whitelock. Read this before the game: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2016/10/08/referees-need-to-wise-up-to-the-scrummaging-dark-art-that-has-in/ . Noticed an early penalty against Todd, I think, where a Bokke (Etzebeth?) had hand between his knees pinning him in ruck. Garcies unsurprisingly missed that -- the first of many decisions I found 'challenging'.
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....with a leather ball that got heavier in the wet.
Imagine what Fox would have done with the modern balls? Still remember him slipping over for a conversion, getting up and drop kicking it instead and still went over. Might have even been with his wrong foot. Dude could kick.
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@Kirwan said in Springboks v All Blacks:
....with a leather ball that got heavier in the wet.
Imagine what Fox would have done with the modern balls? Still remember him slipping over for a conversion, getting up and drop kicking it instead and still went over. Might have even been with his wrong foot. Dude could kick.
Should have been disallowed as ot was 5 or so metres further in field when he kicked it ...
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@broughie I agree with this. Barrett being the threat he is and the form he is in opens up opportunities for others - i'm sure part of the reason the midfield has looked good recently is that Barrett has to be accounted for at 10 you can't just slide off him and try and pressure the midfield because he is too good and too skillful.
I see the opposite of this when I watch Auckland play in Mitre 10 Cup - poor Rieko Ioane often has to deal with rubbish passes from Simon Hickey, putting him on the backfoot (literally and figuratively) and defenders in his face a lot of the time. Especially when he was there without Nanai or Visinia to at least take some of the defensive attention.
Same sort of logic for a winger as dangerous as Naholo being super valuable - with his ability on the wing - he has to be accounted for which either opens up opportunties for him or others.
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@booboo said in Springboks v All Blacks:
@Kirwan said in Springboks v All Blacks:
....with a leather ball that got heavier in the wet.
Imagine what Fox would have done with the modern balls? Still remember him slipping over for a conversion, getting up and drop kicking it instead and still went over. Might have even been with his wrong foot. Dude could kick.
Should have been disallowed as ot was 5 or so metres further in field when he kicked it ...
No, he just picked it and drop kicked it from pretty much the same spot. Freakish.
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On Naholo, I think he is quicker then Savea but not as powerful. Skill wise very similar, both are OK under the high ball and have a reasonable but not great passing/kicking game.
You can't deny what Savea has achieved, and even when he isn't playing well he finds his way to the try line.
One thing you can say is that both attract a lot of defense, and with BB at first five it must be fun being in the AB midfield right now!
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@No-Quarter said in Springboks v All Blacks:
On Naholo, I think he is quicker then Savea but not as powerful. Skill wise very similar, both are OK under the high ball and have a reasonable but not great passing/kicking game.
You can't deny what Savea has achieved, and even when he isn't playing well he finds his way to the try line.
One thing you can say is that both attract a lot of defense, and with BB at first five it must be fun being in the AB midfield right now!
Although looking at the last two tests some of the offloads from ALB have been when there has been a couple of defenders on him.
Savea has been single cover for the most part and that's where I think some have been a bit disappointed in his play as he hasn't been able to exploit that like previous seasons.
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Re Barrett, I'm very keen to see SBW outside him. He could create havoc just hanging off BB shoulder when BB hits the line.
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@ACT-Crusader said in Springboks v All Blacks:
@No-Quarter said in Springboks v All Blacks:
On Naholo, I think he is quicker then Savea but not as powerful. Skill wise very similar, both are OK under the high ball and have a reasonable but not great passing/kicking game.
You can't deny what Savea has achieved, and even when he isn't playing well he finds his way to the try line.
One thing you can say is that both attract a lot of defense, and with BB at first five it must be fun being in the AB midfield right now!
Although looking at the last two tests some of the offloads from ALB have been when there has been a couple of defenders on him.
Savea has been single cover for the most part and that's where I think some have been a bit disappointed in his play as he hasn't been able to exploit that like previous seasons.
Yeah, as I've said before with Savea the bar is set very high. If he only has 1 or 2 blokes ahead of him he's expected to beat them and if he doesn't it's a fail.
I don't know the stats but he has actually beat the first man on a number of occasions, and has made very good ground close to the ruck a number of times. He's not at the heights he was a couple of years ago but most international coaches would give their left arm for him.
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Nah, it's the same exact thing that happened to Dagg between 2013-2015. The bar's automatically set high for any NZ outside back because more than any other position, they're the ones we always seem to have an endless supply of talent coming through or able to slot in at a high level (like Kahui or Barrett). And since everyone always enjoys it when a new, exciting player breaks into the team, Savea put a target on his own back with a rubbish season last year and another rubbish Super and June test season this year. He did admittedly make a good comeback in the first few rounds of the RC but not enough to throw out all the questions surrounding him IMO.
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@No-Quarter said in Springboks v All Blacks:
@ACT-Crusader said in Springboks v All Blacks:
@No-Quarter said in Springboks v All Blacks:
On Naholo, I think he is quicker then Savea but not as powerful. Skill wise very similar, both are OK under the high ball and have a reasonable but not great passing/kicking game.
You can't deny what Savea has achieved, and even when he isn't playing well he finds his way to the try line.
One thing you can say is that both attract a lot of defense, and with BB at first five it must be fun being in the AB midfield right now!
Although looking at the last two tests some of the offloads from ALB have been when there has been a couple of defenders on him.
Savea has been single cover for the most part and that's where I think some have been a bit disappointed in his play as he hasn't been able to exploit that like previous seasons.
Yeah, as I've said before with Savea the bar is set very high. If he only has 1 or 2 blokes ahead of him he's expected to beat them and if he doesn't it's a fail.
I don't know the stats but he has actually beat the first man on a number of occasions, and has made very good ground close to the ruck a number of times. He's not at the heights he was a couple of years ago but most international coaches would give their left arm for him.
I don't know the stats either, but im pretty sure Jules has beaten more defenders than Dagg.
