Highlanders vs Blues
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sucked up time too
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41-34
FRantic game, some excellent play, pretty decent for this early.
Ref certainly had a hand in this, with a harsh YC (by which I think Squire didnt deserve one either) but reckon SBW was lucky not to get one for his deliberate knock
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Bugger..!,fantastic opening game,not the result from a Blues piece but the at this level is all about nailing the small margins,
Found the yellow card a bit hard to swallow but if if that is the standard yellow card for a so called high tackle I will be watch other decisions made by the officials with great interest -
@crucial Yup, led to Rob Thompson's 2nd try.
Not good enough from us. Same shit different year where we lose yet another close NZ derby game. May as well have lost by 50.
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These blues supporters aye! 😉 Not sure if can complain as a nz rugby supporter. All players played pretty good imo. Blues had fire power but just came up short. Was impressed with gatland but if I was going to pick a difference in the game it was A Smith v Pulu. His ability to play field position and run game in last 10-15min stood out. Any good from both teams
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Great game, rugby under the roof is just awesome. Landers looking really good again despite Hammett, and the Blues shouldn't be too disheartened by that, lots of really positive signs. The card really hurt them.
Fuck the NZ conference is going to be strong again.
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@african-monkey said in Highlanders vs Blues:
@crucial Yup, led to Rob Thompson's 2nd try.
Not good enough from us. Same shit different year where we lose yet another close NZ derby game. May as well have lost by 50.
What a bloody stupid thing to say, may have lost, card was tough but shit mate give credit where it is due. The Gane was bloody good.
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I wouldn't worry if I was a blues fan.... but reality is without a 9/10 who control game and leadership like smiths-white lock this is it. It is the 1% tana and Kirwan do/did a good job for me just key players
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@number9 Why? we lose close games to fellow NZ sides every year and this is no different. I don't give a fuck about us being involved in great games, I care about wins and yet again we have lost a NZ derby. We'll continue to go nowhere and miss the playoffs if we continue to lose these games.
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@steven-harris
Yeah I thought the changes were at least 5 mins early especially considering the Blues bench. Maybe even 10 mins early. The yellow was definitely the costly 10. -
@african-monkey Give me a break, we had a crap Yellow, there is a heck of a lot to enjoy about how the boys played. We played intelligently and our tight 5 before the subs were looking good. Load of crap mate Blues look strong.
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@number9 @African-Monkey also the guy who got yellow KiriKiri had the following flankers above him in the pecking order at the Blues before this game 1) Kaino 2) Gibson 3) Pryor 4) Papalii 5) Preston. Now to me he looked better than Preston but still - some perspective.
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Hemopo was looking good eh! Hope he's OK. That guy in the 13 shirt looked fairly handy too. Was funny to see the landers stock play from the year they won (feed Naholo on a reverse play) get shutdown horribly everytime.
Thought Gatland played much better than expected, as did Walden. Akira looked fit as, just can't do it all on his own though and I think that was the main difference.
How old is Scrafton? Without the tape you could almost bloody mistake him for Brooke!
Great game, loving watching this rugby in good ole NZ.
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@number9 well said,sometimes we just look at the result which is what all teams are judged on but if you look at what the Blues dished up for game one and given many of the unavailabilities playing a very experienced Landers team at home it was a solid enough performance just little things at key times,but for a ball rolling into touch they could have rode out of dodge with a draw.
I could see some little gains in terms of attack the ball being put put into space between defefenders which Parsons hit some nice holes.
They just need a wee bit more trust in their defence to eliminate needles infractions.Set piece scrum and lineout in the main was good and I thought Pulu and Gatland combined well.
Plenty of scope for attack with Ioane and Duffy on the flanks. -
From a neutral pot, you guys do realise that (apart from a draw) one team ends up winning and one team losing even when the both teams play well?
I get that it hurts to lose but that doesn't necessarily make the team rubbish. If the Blues had won that game should heads roll at the Highlanders? Of course not.
Yes, the Blues still need to find the way to get over the hurdle, I get that.
That was a soft YC away from a win IMO and that shows that above all they need support to finish the job not more sniping to erode confidence.
The other big difference in the game was AS. But then, we can't clone the worlds best halfback and give him to every franchise in NZ to even things up.
I thought it was an impressive losing performance, especially considering the makeshift loose forwards. Gatland made up for not being the very best 10 with a perfect kicking display.
