NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry)
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@kirwan said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
@jegga said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
@tim said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
So two former Wellington rugby players managed to get these underachievers to perform?
Don’t forget Lavea and Ted.
Although from the sounds of it Alama is responsible for building the team culture, and getting the passion back.
During the Canes implosion of 2011 the Hammettuer regularly would go on the radio on Saturday after a game and lay into the players, and then Ieremia would go on on Sunday and walk back Hammett's comments. I always felt sorry for Ieremia (even while putting the boot into him for being part of that organisation at that time) so I'm glad he's managed to carry on his coaching career.
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@tim said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
Another thing about Akira this season is that he switched from 6 to 8, where he's been playing wider. Last year at 6 he was tighter, and hitting more rucks and making more fringe tackles.
I can't remember last year too much because I only started noticing the detracting goalpost moving during the Super comp this year.
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@Nepia Thats a pretty fair analysis, and echos something Sumo said on his podcast about Akira. Apparently the AB coaches back themselves to get the best of players and want players in the environment to improve their games.
The example he used was Mounga, who has plenty of workons in his game, but they want him in the environment to iron those out and get him up to Test standard.
So why don’t they back themselves to do the same with Akira? They do with Fifita, Hemapo, Frizzle, Whitelock, Ofa, Scott And Jordie Barrett.
All players they have gaps in their game but are getting game time to improve.
Except with Akira, who has been delivering in a dysfunctional SR team for two years and has now won his team a premiership.
Handled right Akira will be unstoppable at Test level. Imagine the fear from the opposition with that freak running from the back of a rock solid AB scrum?
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@nepia It was very noticeable that Auckland (best defence in the competition) stationed him in the wide midfield (typically outside Manu) almost all the time on defence. Not going to make nearly as many tackles out there, but is going to shut down a lot of space.
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@kirwan It reminds me a bit of Laurie Mains not wanting to pick Zinny because of 'his' reasons and it took Fitzy and Robin Brooke to convince him to pick him. Then three years later Mains was organising side deals/employment to keep Zinny in the team.
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@nepia said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
@kirwan It reminds me a bit of Laurie Mains not wanting to pick Zinny because of 'his' reasons and it took Fitzy and Robin Brooke to convince him to pick him. Then three years later Mains was organising side deals/employment to keep Zinny in the team.
It’s almost exactly the same. Even with the Pene/Whitelock limited player comparison and who they play for.
Same crap used be written about Brooke’s defence as well.
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What with the Auckland vs Canterbury player debates and their win yesterday a decent superrugby season should be enough to make me despise them again.
This was only six months ago
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-rugby/103358560/auckland-rugby-is-now-too-bad-to-hate
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@nepia which, IMO all adds up to there being something else to the whole sorry saga...and yea we get sick of the speculation, but thats all we have.
Is it something off field, has he done something in camp that lead the coaches to believe he will be a bad choice regardless of his on field play?
Be interested to get some of his data from the stats they have access to, cos I cant see it telling us a huge amount different to what we know already.
Even if he is a tool, he is such a talent that it'd be good to get him immersed in the environment, point out what dickheadedness things he is doing so he can choose to change them or not.
Wile it is not out of the question for him to make the RWC squad, the way these coaches operate means it will take something pretty special from him to leap frog however many players they have pegged ahead of him...or they all get injured.
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@chchfanatic said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
Ioane is a flog. Totally outplayed by whitelock
Riiight
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@pukunui said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
With 1:30 left the rain came over my house and sky decided it was too hard to get a signal dammit.
Great game. Congrats Auckland, great comeback.
Good for the comp to have them win IMO.Shit i'd rather have Akira AND Seu in the ABs ahead of about 5 of the Highlanders loose forwards. Would take Plummer ahead of Cameron too.
Biggest moment of the game was Ruru getting dragged.
Haven't watch much M10C but Plummer looked awful handy
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@chchfanatic said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
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.
Was Whitelock playing?
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@stargazer said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
@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.
Not so sure he was that bad in the 1st half.
I watched the recording this morning with premeditated ideas and thought he was pretty good. Walked a couple if times sure.
Didn't see much of Whitelock.
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Congrats Auckland.
After a few fallow years of pitying the pricks in blue and white, it'll be nice to go back to downright hating them again 😉, ( except when they play overseas opponents, in which case I find I feel very fond of them 😀, for a couple of hours anyway)
"Strong Auckland, strong ABs" no longer applies bit it's no fun having a large rugby organisation as an example of shoddy admin.
Enjoy the premiership, played well all season.
The Akira bullshit whining is all based on an entitled view that Hansen hasn't seen the same performances as a tv watching expert. That Hansen, if confronted about Akiras play would simply remark " really, I haven't seen him play much so I left him out, thanks for the tip"
The Akira whinging has quite frankly reached the level of Quade Cooper whining in Australia
But no no, you sure as fuck know as much about Akira as Shag does, so by all means continue the toy throwing...
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@siam This place runs on toy throwing, it's part of the fun. Yours and @Stargazer's throwing of toys at the throwing of toys about Akira just add to the fun.
Sadly, with Aaron Smith out of form we miss out the old classics like when @Canerbry claims any other player would be a better bet at 9 than him.
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Zzzzz an appeal to authority argument.. we're reaching the bottom of the barrel now
Henry thinks it was a mistake. You think you know more than Ted!!?!!?!
Imagine this place if we weren't allowed to question a coaches/refs/players decisions? They have more info! Never question! They are always correct! Hahaha
