Highlanders vs Blues
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@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. -
@crucial said in Highlanders vs Blues:
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.
Yup.. they did slightly better than I was expecting. Some positive signs in attack, last year I thought we looked extremely easy to defend against
A bonus point away loss given the loosie situation isn’t too bad. The first five weeks is about damage limitation, we only have one home game and the injuries are concentrated in a couple of positions.
Akira looked sharp. Eight is his correct position
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So good to have the rugby back. Great game to start. Both sides looked pretty good for their first game. A Smith and B Smith showing their class.
Funny to see people complain about the yellow. Last year at the start of the super seasonthat was red. Show how fucked the policing of that area is. I fully expect that same tackle will be both red and penalty only at some point this season.
The communicator pulled of probably his best ever play at super level for the Ioane try. He is still mud though.
Akira really needs to shelve his tough guy from the mean streets attitude. No need to come running in for a shove. It will cost him one day.
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Let's be honest here; Nutbrown is a clown of a ref. Highlander's try in the 30th minute was off a clearly forward pass and wtf at the maul call at the end? "I've had enough and that's technically a maul for .032 seconds so fuck you Auckland"?
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@antipodean said in Highlanders vs Blues:
Let's be honest here; Nutbrown is a clown of a ref. Highlander's try in the 30th minute was off a clearly forward pass and wtf at the maul call at the end? "I've had enough and that's technically a maul for .032 seconds so fuck you Auckland"?
What interested me about that last call is that if he determined a maul he must then determine whether it was collapsed or the ball carrier went to ground himself but failed to make the ball available. He blew the whistle very quickly and took the easy way out.
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Man, didn't realize how much I missed Super Rugby / the NZ derbies. Worth staying up late for on a school night. Watched the first two weeks of 6N and the difference in speed is still there.
Not sure about the new rules at the ruck. Although I do like the new 'swipping at the ball to attempt an unlikely catch' rule. -
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@jaycee said in Highlanders vs Blues:
@crucial after the Blues performance last night, it's going to be extremely tough opening two weeks on the road for the Chiefs.
Yeah. Always was going to be.
As I keep saying. The NZ conference is massively difficult and coming third, fourth or fifth can come down to a few moments, injures or calls. Someone has to come last and they aren’t necessarily shite -
@crucial said in Highlanders vs Blues:
No one going to comment on that nice piece of play from Collins at the end there? A nice step and offload that put the Landers under pressure at the next phases leading to a penalty.
Did a couple of good things to make half breaks. Imagine if Nanai had been in those positions ...
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@pukunui said in Highlanders vs Blues:
So good to have the rugby back. Great game to start. Both sides looked pretty good for their first game. A Smith and B Smith showing their class.
Funny to see people complain about the yellow. Last year at the start of the super seasonthat was red. Show how fucked the policing of that area is. I fully expect that same tackle will be both red and penalty only at some point this season.
The communicator pulled of probably his best ever play at super level for the Ioane try. He is still mud though.
Akira really needs to shelve his tough guy from the mean streets attitude. No need to come running in for a shove. It will cost him one day.
I agree with big-gut-guy here. Yellow at least. Direct forceful contact with the head. Lucky it wasn't red.
As for Squire good decision. Late and unnecessary. No head contact. Advantage played. Try scored. Move on.
Interesting to see how who you support skews you view on the above.
BTW I wanted the Blues to win.
Liked what i saw from Paddy T's few minutes. Looked angry.
Scrafton is bigger than I recall.
Good game to watch through a slight red win haze.
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@steven-harris said in Highlanders vs Blues:
You just no it’s not gonna be your night when when there’s daylight Reiko Ioane and the ball rolls over the touch line.
I do wonder if the Blues should have been awarded a penalty for the Highlander (Squire?) pushed Ioane way back at the start of that chase?
If he hadn’t have been pushed off balance he would have collected that ball before it went into touch. -
Enjoyable first game. Thought Pulu was really poor. Collins was better than expected. Squire was good.
But my wet dream will be BFA. Looked super refreshed and ready to rumble.
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Some random thoughts
SBW is slow as hell in the open field. Strictly a 12 only - cant be considered for 13.
Naholo and Rieko were both excellent - brilliant to watch.
Rob 'Matchbox 20' Thompson really strong.
Akira made a statement - workrate up - looks bloody fit - x factor galore. Outplayed Luke Whitelock.
Pulu clearly outplayed by Aaron Smith but by no means was he poor - error free, was decisive at ruck time, made good captaincy choices.
Gatland's boot a huge step up from Ihaia.
Preston looked out of his depth - I had my suspicions when Steve Bates talked him up - sure enough.
Nutbrown wasnt atrocious but he isnt a very good ref - Highlanders got the rub of the green.
Cracking game considering first for both.
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I am not convinced about the "Akira workrate up" observation.
Will wait and see, think he drifts in and out of games a lot, hard to argue with two tries but they were not super difficult, the second against A Smith more difficult but he should be scoring those tries. His lineout work looked pretty good at times on opposition throw.
No question he outplayed Whitelock L, how is Whitelock an AB number 8, can't break tackles or beat a man, the only thing he seemed to offer last night that he didn't really make any stupid mistakes and turn the ball over when he went into contact, and goes into contact without much impact.
