Bledisloe 3
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@taniwharugby said in BLEDISLOE 3:
@siam I'd be very surprised if Cane was knocked out and didnt go off, he has taken himself off twice this season, once staying off even after he passed the HIA.
Gatland employed the rush defence to neutralise our advantage, other teams are now getting better at it and have used this to good effect and we have failed to adjust when teams use it effectively on us.
I saw the same incident that Siam did, although, maybe the look on Cane's face was just the pissed off look of someone working hard while his workmates seemed to be going through the motions.
We could do with a 2012-14 era Cruden as his playing to the line style would create space for others with the rush defence.
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@nta said in BLEDISLOE 3:
Was tossing up earlier today whether Barrett or Retallick was the bigger loss.
It's actually hard to call but maybe Barrett squeaks it for the sake of execution.
I don't think the first half plan was necessarily wrong - pin us back, kick points when available in the wet, try to build some pressure and accrue a try or two. The odd contestable kick worked well.
Just that occasionally Sopoaga didn't get it quite right, and we settled on Aaron Smith's kicks better as the game went along. And of course SBW with that.. thing at the end.
Barrett might have given some of those through kicks just a bit more venom, or taken the line on a couple more times.
Not sure what Franks or Moody would have turned around, I don't see the problems in our front row, although yes Coles either no longer has the speed (or confidence?) that he had last year.
I think Retallick is a little more consistent though.I like SB but he just can't monster and turn the match like Retallick.
DMac-not our 2nd or 3rd best 10 is he? And on the line he just isn't big enough to stop those tries. What really pisses me off though is every game or so he throws a really bad pass, even if not under great pressure.I thought Sopoaga could just not handle the pace of the Wallabies.
Squire had some work-rate, but ineffective, he has the size, I am more worried he doesn't have the rugby nous. Perhaps he is quicker than Kaino but in these conditions, Kaino would have slowed them down with his tackling.Worrying weakness was our midfield. Most worried about Crotty, he was weak at what he is normally reliable at.
SBW apart from that kick, was playing with fire with his semi-arm tackling. Would not work against some French refs methinks.Read was great. I still wonder if he is a great tactical captain but nothing bad really stood out for me in terms of tactics that he is responsible for. Coaches though, no, not good at all.
Worst thing though was probably seeing an Aucklander called Tui playing well against the ABs.
I can't even blame the ref! -
@nostrildamus I forgot to add they should have taken Cane off after 60 or 70m, not that he played badly, but he looked exhausted. Is our bench option such a huge drop in quality?
And yes last night Cane Todd would have been better than Cane Squire. -
@nostrildamus said in BLEDISLOE 3:
@nostrildamus I forgot to add they should have taken Cane off after 60 or 70m, not that he played badly, but he looked exhausted. Is our bench option such a huge drop in quality?
And yes last night Cane Todd would have been better than Cane Squire.The bench option, Savea, was used to replace Squire, so there was nobody left on the bench to replace Cane.
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I think with SBW and Crotty in midfield you probably lack a second playmaking option to take pressure of Sopoaga occasionally.
SBW has an offload. That's about it. Crotty is a solid player, but he's no Conrad. So, to me they're a similar style + 1 guy can offload.
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@nta said in BLEDISLOE 3:
I think with SBW and Crotty in midfield you probably lack a second playmaking option to take pressure of Sopoaga occasionally.
SBW has an offload. That's about it. Crotty is a solid player, but he's no Conrad. So, to me they're a similar style + 1 guy can offload.
I think having D Mac there is that option, but he didn't come into first receiver too much like he does with the Chiefs. In theory the midfield shouldn't be too much of an issue, with things going shit SBW and Crotty should just tuck the ball and hit the advantage line - that's how the Chiefs used to take pressure of Cruden, if nothing was on he knew he could feed it to the midfielders who would set it up (unless TNW was in midfield).
Hmm, that post was more Chiefs than I expected it to be ... must be on my brain since my Cruden 2012 comment.
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@reprobate said in BLEDISLOE 3:
cane to 6 isn't the worst idea, he certainly has the defensive presence for it.
He is the same height as the Irish 6 Stander who goes all right. He is a tackling machine already so he can continue doing that. Or do you look at someone like S Barrett at 6. Or can the coaches get the best from Squire and Fifita. Is Ioane a 6/8 option? I guess we will see on the tour.
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@nepia said in BLEDISLOE 3:
I think having D Mac there is that option, but he didn't come into first receiver too much like he does with the Chiefs. In theory the midfield shouldn't be too much of an issue, with things going shit SBW and Crotty should just tuck the ball and hit the advantage line - that's how the Chiefs used to take pressure of Cruden, if nothing was on he knew he could feed it to the midfielders who would set it up (unless TNW was in midfield).
It appears that is what SBW tried to do. He made 14 hit ups and only made 17 run metres. Suggests he was running into solid traffic all night long. Not sure what Crotty was doing with 2 runs. Our midfield combined made 29 run metres. Wallabies midfield made 11 runs each with 108m made.
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I'd also like to draw attention to the fact that, midway through the Aussie presser, Cheika was very generous in his praise and good wishes for Wayne Smith. Along the lines of
"I don't know him that well, personally, but every player and coach who was worked with him has nothing but praise, and he's done wonderful things for New Zealand" etc
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@nta said in BLEDISLOE 3:
I'd also like to draw attention to the fact that, midway through the Aussie presser, Cheika was very generous in his praise and good wishes for Wayne Smith. Along the lines of
"I don't know him that well, personally, but every player and coach who was worked with him has nothing but praise, and he's done wonderful things for New Zealand" etc
much like the game itself nick, that never happened. he did nothing but criticise the referee, swear, and call us cheats.
also his shirt wasn't well ironed, and he needed a shave. -
@stargazer ok missed that. I usually notice Savea on the field, must have been half asleep!
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@chimoaus said in BLEDISLOE 3:
@reprobate said in BLEDISLOE 3:
cane to 6 isn't the worst idea, he certainly has the defensive presence for it.
He is the same height as the Irish 6 Stander who goes all right. He is a tackling machine already so he can continue doing that. Or do you look at someone like S Barrett at 6. Or can the coaches get the best from Squire and Fifita. Is Ioane a 6/8 option? I guess we will see on the tour.
I suspect Scott Barrett would have had more impact at 6 than Squire last night. He is also IMO a smarter player.
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@nostrildamus said in BLEDISLOE 3:
@stargazer ok missed that. I usually notice Savea on the field, must have been half asleep!
He's quite hard to spot as he's not very tall.
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@reprobate said in BLEDISLOE 3:
he did nothing but criticise the referee,
Funnily enough when asked about the referee he laughed and said he'd probably be best to shut up.
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Was an odd game in a number of ways, but I'm bloody stoked we won it.
In many ways the usual roles were reversed last night. We played a horrible first 38 minutes, but snagged a try right before half time to put the game on an even keel - something McCaw's ABs used to do time and time again.
We then upped the tempo in the second 40, and while the focus will be on our attack it was the defensive pressure that won us the game. Big hits, great reads and accuracy - so, so, so far from what we dished up in Sydney.
The ABs looked Wallaby-esque in their kicking game. Short clearances that didn't find touch, overcooked up-and-unders, shitty grubbers in the attacking 22. I don't think the tactics were bad at all, but it was so poorly executed.
A Wallaby loss would have been heartbreaking, more so than Dunedin. Because the ABs played well in Dunedin. In Brisbane they were undermanned and off their game, and you just can't let a chance like that slip away.
Credit to the team, though. Our improvement this season has been great to see, and now you can actually glimpse a competitive World Cup 23 emerging.
