MotM vs Australia III
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I thought Taylor was a bit rocks and diamonds - missed 2 or three tackles (one bad one), had one underthrow, gave away a penalty, and was a bit lucky with the handbags not to get himself in trouble.
The props were also good at their core roles - the scrum looks good - but it's also worth mentioning that we got zero metres out of the starting props - with four missed tackles (2 each). Turns out we got no metres from the replacements either! I wonder if this is because we were playing very flat and trying to go around them.
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I've felt that SBW and Crotty have been a bit rusty due to lack of play and so haven't been 100% behind the promote the young guys ... but I'm leaning to their day is done. Despite some of his fluffers Crotty is pretty ineffectual these days and SBW is feat or famine and mostly famine. Fit and in form these two are great. They're both not fit or in form. It probably would have been best to leave them behind and play ALB, Goodhue and Laumape on the tour, and then they could have been fit and primed for next years Super campaign and if they fired then they could have come back in easy peasy.
Still haven't done my rewatch so unsure at the moment who the top 3 were.
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@nepia said in MotM vs Australia III:
I've felt that SBW and Crotty have been a bit rusty due to lack of play and so haven't been 100% behind the promote the young guys ... but I'm leaning to their day is done.
SBW and Goodhue would still be worth a trundle. A slowish 12 with massive strength, strong tackling and the offloads could be a thing of beauty with a thoroughbred outside him.
That said, he needs to get back to his defensive best. Hopefully this is rust rather than a full decline
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In SBW, the All Blacks now have their very own Sam Burgess or Andy Farrell. An ex-League forward playing 12 and struggling to make ground and create space. Add in his increasing defensive fragility and you have a player who is very lucky to still be playing international Rugby for a top class side.
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@sparky said in MotM vs Australia III:
In SBW, the All Blacks now have their very own Sam Burgess or Andy Farrell. An ex-League forward playing 12 and struggling to make ground and create space. Add in his increasing defensive fragility and you have a player who is very lucky to still be playing international Rugby for a top class side.
Except he's easily been better than those two in the past and his midfield partner who can't be tarred with the ex-leaguie brush has been as cabbage as well.
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It’s clear that SBW isn’t playing at peak levels although from Hansen’s post match comments they think he’s not far off clicking so are happy to persist.
Some of the comments are a bit disingenuous as well. He has been making ground, just not so much during attacking moves. He is the go to on exit plays and was making good space, getting the team moving forward again when they had the ball in the 22.
So he’s ticking one box in his role. Needs to tick more. I also don’t think he combines well with BB.
SBWs best work comes from 10s that take on the line in structured play. He runs off their shoulder and busts through with the option of an offload to do damage past the defence. -
He did very well on exit plays, but that was about it.
The problem with his current play though is that we'd get pretty much the same from Laumape, with maybe a bit more tackle busting and a better relationship with Barrett (Laumape's tackle stats are likely to be about the same as SBW's current stats, I guess, given his defensive weaknesses). Although I hope SBW gets in better form, I don't think he can solve the biggest weakness he has right now - he's slow AF.
I'm looking forward to seeing him with Goodhue.
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@nepia said in MotM vs Australia III:
@sparky said in MotM vs Australia III:
In SBW, the All Blacks now have their very own Sam Burgess or Andy Farrell. An ex-League forward playing 12 and struggling to make ground and create space. Add in his increasing defensive fragility and you have a player who is very lucky to still be playing international Rugby for a top class side.
Except he's easily been better than those two in the past and his midfield partner who can't be tarred with the ex-leaguie brush has been as cabbage as well.
Yep. I'm no SBW fan but he's achieved a hell of alot more in the game than those 2. Pity he chose to commit long term now rather than when he was at his peak (although having said that Nonu became GOAT12 in that time).
Just regarding 12 I'd really like to see Laumape again. I was excited about what he did in the 2nd test against Aus. His ability to smash the pill up all game and cause hurt to the defence is a huge plus. He's one of those fuckers who everyone hates to tackle and will create holes as the game wears on. This obviously requires him to be used properly.
But I've been quite vocal about who should be 12. He played there for the NZ u20s and was Mitre 10 player of the year in that position. But nobody will listen dammit!
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@rancid-schnitzel said in MotM vs Australia III:
But I've been quite vocal about who should be 12. He played there for the NZ u20s and was Mitre 10 player of the year in that position. But nobody will listen dammit!
As I said before, TJ Faiane might lack some size at test level.
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Crotty has been shit for ages but some of you fluffybunnies are so desperate for another slow white boy who is awesome you can't see it. Also sonny bill is our david pocock
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@nzzp said in MotM vs Australia III:
A slowish 12 with massive strength, strong tackling and the offloads could be a thing of beauty
SBW meets the first of that criteria, that's for sure. IMHO, he's too hit and miss on the other things - off-loads and tackling
My big worry is that less than year out from RWC2019 the midfield doesn't look settled. Perhaps Hansen has some masterplan or he is just hoping SBW & Crotty come good.
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I think Hansen and co have been waiting for the opportunity to play SBW and Goodhue to see how it goes.
I thought Crotty and Goodhue worked well and given this year seems very much like 2014 v2.0 the coaches have been willing to try quite a few different variations.
I think they know from the last few seasons that SBW/Crotty, Crotty/ALB, SBW/ALB, Crotty/Goodhue combos are good enough. It’s the other possible variations that potentially look good that we haven’t seen because of injury.
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@tim said in MotM vs Australia III:
@rancid-schnitzel said in MotM vs Australia III:
But I've been quite vocal about who should be 12. He played there for the NZ u20s and was Mitre 10 player of the year in that position. But nobody will listen dammit!
As I said before, TJ Faiane might lack some size at test level.
You got the J part right.
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Is Franks the best TH option now given the rise of Tu'ungafasa and return of Laulala?
Part of an awesome scrum but doesn't seem to offer much else. Is his lifting enough to compensate for his lack of impact hitting it up and defensively?
All of the above is very likely bollocks but is a genuine question from someone who played in the front row once as seven year old and so has no fucking idea
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