NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry)
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@pukunui Damn right.
I'll repeat what the greatest coach of all time, Graham Henry, said:
With a bit of love from the All Blacks Akira could be a world great.
He does things that are almost Lomu-esque
See his ball carrying at the end. Three players had to bring him down (from a standing start), and he still recycled pretty quickly. That created the miss-match that Fukofuka and Nanai exploited.
Auckland could easily have folded after 30 mins, but they didn't and Ioane and Faiane lead from the front.
Who wouldn't want Ioane coming on for the AB's with 30 mins to go?
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Congrats Auckland. Great game by the forwards in the second half to hold the ball and grind out territory.
I have been a homer for Akira and I know he made plays that made a difference in the game. However the dude needs to get in the game more. He looks a little heavy and is out of shape. Walks to multiple rucks and does not have enough touches on the ball for my liking. Potential up the wahzoo but I now accept what the selectors want to see. Increased work rate. Simple as.
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@stargazer he was rubbish all day. He’s a lazy fat prick. Holmstead was a beast today
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@chchfanatic Wouldn't say he was a beast but a pretty influential player.
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@stargazer said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
@antipodean It's an unfair solution though. Two injured hookers and two injured props. Theoretical situation, but then you'd go for a (replaced) lock.
Are you being deliberately obtuse?
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@chchfanatic Yep, that's why we lost. Ioane just didn't get us back into it in the 2nd half. Clearly he was just useless. Not like wonder athlete Whitelock with his tackles that don't slow the ball, or 1m flop to the ground ball carries.
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I am at the Kamo Rugby Club and was a loud cheer when Auckland won...admittedly there were 2 Auckland teams here too but seems most were cheering for Auckland.
I need a shower 😂
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@stargazer said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
@antipodean It's an unfair solution though. Two injured hookers and two injured props. Theoretical situation, but then you'd go for a (replaced) lock.
There's no requirement to have any locks on the bench, so what do you do if they have 5 outside backs?
I mean, it's also unfair that you can't bring back on a substituted player for an injured one so have to replace an outside back with a loose forward. And that you have to play with 14 players if you've used all your substitutes. But the more complex you make the rules, the more potential loopholes you create to be abused.
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Was a great game of footy won by the best team all season. Canterbury played awesome today but just couldn’t get up. Today showed why whitelock is an all black and ioane is a pretender. The crusaders were offered ioane to try and sort him out. Razor just laughed at them and said he’s not what we’re looking for.
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@tim Nanai was a main reason we lost. Thought the young reserve hooker was great for Auckland too.
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@chchfanatic LOL, please keep this up. Most entertaining Cantab after a loss in a while.
Your tactic of focussing on the opposition's best player is an interesting one for sure.
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@tim Whether Akira was Auckland's best player is debatable. He was one of the best in the 2nd half and ET, but was mostly invisible and completely dominated during the first half; also got correctly yellow carded. TJ Faiane was good for the entire match, one of the few who stood out in the first half.
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@tim I suppose u know the real reason why ioane and laumape were dropped from the ABs then too do ya.
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@chchfanatic I can guess but do you have the goods.
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@chchfanatic Do you? We've heard one story on here.
Do you have anything to backup your "offered to the Crusaders" talk? We know that the Hurricanes were after him.
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@tim sorry don’t know the story on here. It involves drinking breaking curfew etc.
Let’s just say I was at a bbq with a certain high profile crusaders person who I’ve known for years and after a few beers we asked him who was in the squad for next year. We all said ioane would be great in crusaders environment. He said he was offered to them and the coaches just laughed at the thought
