Bledisloe 2
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@98blueandgold said in Bledisloe 2:
Also think it's time to look at Ramano. I know Barrett is no 3 but Ramano is not the present or future!! I'm a big Tuipolotou bench option fan. Again he has flaws but 30mins of him in a test is a sight and proven!
Tuipulotu should have put in more effort for the Blues this season if he wanted to be an All Black.
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I've got a feeling they will start putting some serious work into akiras development,.
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@Bovidae said in Bledisloe 2:
@mimic said in Bledisloe 2:
It will be interesting to see if DMac does learn. He's been making errors all year. It's the way he plays the game.
DMac made less errors than SBW, Read and BBBR in the match.
I was surprised how often their inside/ deep passes went to no one. Thankfully none of them resulted in run away tries.
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@Bovidae said in Bledisloe 2:
@mimic said in Bledisloe 2:
It will be interesting to see if DMac does learn. He's been making errors all year. It's the way he plays the game.
DMac made less errors than SBW, Read and BBBR in the match.
I don't get the DMac hate. He made one big error in the 2nd half with that pass that was picked up by Beale. Apart from that, he was outstanding and offers a 2nd playmaker option that makes the ABs attack even more threatening and unpredicatble.
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@kiwiinmelb said in Bledisloe 2:
I've got a feeling they will start putting some serious work into akiras development,.
Was it me or he did he look slightly out of condition on the weekend. Seemed to have been working on the stomach region instead of the shoulders and arms. He has the right elements to make a great player but needs to put in the hard yards. Maybe they need to room him with Sam Cane.
Strikes me as a player with amazing natural ability that has been able to use his natural size to dominate school boy/age group opponents but hasn't quite made the same impact at senior level. I really do want him to kick on though.
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@chimoaus said in Bledisloe 2:
Was it me or he did he look slightly out of condition on the weekend.
Strange, I thought Akira was everywhere on the weekend. A pest on defence constantly involved. He was the most prominent player in the last 5min too so I don't think conditioning is an issue
I thought I 'd double check the stats for this game. There's only a handful available but they give you an idea..
In defence he got more turnovers than anyone else (3) and was the second highest tackler for Auckland
In attack he was number one in run metres, carries, defenders beaten and passes by a player not playing 9 or 10.
(run metres is surprising that is almost always a fullback or wing)Stats aren't everything but that certainly matches what I saw.. an All Black level player showing his class at NPC level
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@chimoaus said in Bledisloe 2:
@kiwiinmelb said in Bledisloe 2:
I've got a feeling they will start putting some serious work into akiras development,.
Was it me or he did he look slightly out of condition on the weekend. Seemed to have been working on the stomach region instead of the shoulders and arms. He has the right elements to make a great player but needs to put in the hard yards. Maybe they need to room him with Sam Cane.
Strikes me as a player with amazing natural ability that has been able to use his natural size to dominate school boy/age group opponents but hasn't quite made the same impact at senior level. I really do want him to kick on though.
He was the best player on the park, certainly didn't look out of his condition either.
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@Duluth hopefully he gets to stay in camp for the ABs this weekend...
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For the good of the country of course..
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@antipodean And what was with Read's flick between his legs to no one from that attacking scrum?
Read said himself that they did the simple things well in the 1st half but I think they were too cute with some of the options in the 2nd half (e.g., forced passes, a quick throw-in from TJP).
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Akira has certainly had his battles with his fitness in the past - reading between the lines I don't think he has historically been the best trainer.
But yes he was brilliant on the weekend - he was also hitting a lot of rucks. I'd like to see him given a change off the AB bench.
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@KiwiMurph said in Bledisloe 2:
Akira has certainly had his battles with his fitness in the past - reading between the lines I don't think he has historically been the best trainer.
But yes he was brilliant on the weekend - he was also hitting a lot of rucks. I'd like to see him given a change off the AB bench.
If we are talking about raw potential , i thought he impressed against the Lions too ,
Against seasoned test forwards , his physicality seemed to take them by surprise
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@KiwiMurph said in Bledisloe 2:
Akira has certainly had his battles with his fitness in the past - reading between the lines I don't think he has historically been the best trainer.
But yes he was brilliant on the weekend - he was also hitting a lot of rucks. I'd like to see him given a change off the AB bench.
Has he? When? Feels like he’s getting tarred with the Luatua brush (who did get unfit and was fairly criticised for it).
Akira is usually at the top end of the stats, usually plays 80 mins and his crazy runs are generally in the second half. As were some of his maul heroics in the last year.
All I can think of is that awful article where both brothers were pretty much slandered by some hack, accusing them of having to do remedial fitness in front of Wayne Smith at a Blues training . We now know that he was looking at them for the All Blacks.
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