TRC: Pumas v All Blacks
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Well, that was, um, something.
As a club game it was pretty good. As a test match it was dogshit.
Positives. Defensively we were pretty good. The new kids were trusted with winning a tight one, and did. And the scrum.
On the other side? Fuuuck. Headless fucking rubbish. If the game plan was no game plan, then we stuck to it with relish. Shit passes to guys in bad positions. Mistake after mistake. The midfield unit was a disaster. The attack was as disjointed as is possible to be. What the fuck was that 2nd half?
Fifita surely played his way out of the team, worst player on the field. JBarrett makes so many dumb errors. That was ALBs worst game of 2019. Retallic kept giving away dumb penalties. We are so very poor as a team kicking from hand.
So at least we won and no one got hurt?
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Well I enjoyed that, first game of the year missing a number of stars against an Argie side who are no longer pushovers at home, it was always going to be close.
Bit rusty in execution but overall I think we did reasonably well. BB was great as too Savea and Retallick. Scrum held up well. Good to see Coles and Cane back. Jordie had a few errors but definitely worth persevering with for his boot and potential with his height. Newbies weren't over awed and gained some valuable close test match experience. Thought Gardner controlled the game beautifully, great communication with his assistants and let the game flow without missing much.
We'll be a lot better next game, Puma's are going to rue this missed opportunity for a long time, especially Sanchez missing that last penalty.
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@taniwharugby said in TRC: Pumas v All Blacks:
Reece poor on defence but can catch, Jordie cant catch but can tackle.
Yup. A RWC combo of Ioane, Bridge & Smith became more likely today
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@Toddy said in TRC: Pumas v All Blacks:
Was it Reece with the poor defensive read when he came off his wing in the second half and BB had to pull off a try saver? Never saw a replay so couldn't judge how bad it was.
Yep. Bad decision from the rookie. Great defense from Barrett to clean it up.
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Rusty game. First up with so many players missing not surprising.
Fifita and Jordie were really bad.
I thought Ofa was great - got through a mountain of work.
Ardie outstanding.
Jacobson showed some promise on debut.
Beauden class but his punting as usual could improve a lot.
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Geez Hansen is starting to annoy me.
Before the test "This game is all about getting a good look at some of the new/fringe guys and starting to implement our structure".
....that...
After the test "I feel like we really got a good chance to see everyone and we certainly learnt a lot."
Really? First of all it seems like we still have the same structure from EOYT (none). Not enough ball went Reece's way and we saw at most 23 minutes of the bench and most of that was without ball in hand. I guess we saw more solid play from Laumape - but he still won't be picked and we saw more poor play from Jordie and he still will be picked. So how did we learn anything? Oh and you just Spiced Josh Ioane - good one.
If you are going to talk up one thing going into the test, at least front up when it doesn't go to plan.
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Laumape was pretty good individually I thought.
What did I learn Steve? I learned we still don't have a settled midfield. I learned that probably our best 12 is probably not going.
And we are going to be left with either a porcelain journeyman to combo with our best center by default. Or we are going with a mismatch.
Top planning.
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@sparky said in TRC: Pumas v All Blacks:
One of the worst All Black performance of all-time from Fifita. Totally out of his depth at this level.
The worst I can remember of late was James Broadhurst vs SA. Poor guy not only played poorly also got CTE for his troubles.
Outside that Donald 2010. (Although pretty sure that got deleted from the history books after 2011 and him getting knighted).
Fafita was up there
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@mariner4life problem is, next week we are likely to see around half the team swapped out, possibly a positional change or 2 as well, so any rustiness and lack of cohesion will likely still be there, wont be until week 3 (v Aus) where we might see our 'best' team who have played together 1 time already, even then, probably still be tinkering...but then the way Aus are tracking, what will that show us?
I really hope we see an ALB/Goodhue mid-field...
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@Rembrandt said in TRC: Pumas v All Blacks:
Well I enjoyed that, first game of the year missing a number of stars against an Argie side who are no longer pushovers at home, it was always going to be close.
Bit rusty in execution but overall I think we did reasonably well. BB was great as too Savea and Retallick. Scrum held up well. Good to see Coles and Cane back. Jordie had a few errors but definitely worth persevering with for his boot and potential with his height. Newbies weren't over awed and gained some valuable close test match experience. Thought Gardner controlled the game beautifully, great communication with his assistants and let the game flow without missing much.
We'll be a lot better next game, Puma's are going to rue this missed opportunity for a long time, especially Sanchez missing that last penalty.
Is this one giant Poe? "did reasonably well"? "a few errors"? "potential with his height"?
What we saw was dreck -- a bad game plan, a lot of stupid penalties when not even under pressure, dropped ball, passes to no-one, some dodgy lineouts.
No, the Pumas haven't got better. You have to go back to 2006 to find the last time they were within a score of winning the game, and in our last few games against them we have won by about 20 points. We were one missed tackle in the corner away from losing that game.
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@Rancid-Schnitzel said in TRC: Pumas v All Blacks:
Yes, yes you do. Iirc you also had some bizzarre comment about his attacking skills a while back. He did not drop pill like that as captain.
He certainly did. At one stage it seemed more common for him to drop it cold than catch it. As captain.
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Ardie should be the starting 7.
It should be his jersey to lose and Cane's to win - not the other way round.
He was the incumbent (I thought Hansen said the incumbent gets to keep the jersey??) and the best Kiwi player in Super rugby this year.
His rival broke his neck last year, hasn't played nearly as well this year, takes his jersey and is made Captain!
And fuck Jordie Barrett.
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@antipodean said in TRC: Pumas v All Blacks:
@Rancid-Schnitzel said in TRC: Pumas v All Blacks:
Yes, yes you do. Iirc you also had some bizzarre comment about his attacking skills a while back. He did not drop pill like that as captain.
He certainly did. At one stage it seemed more common for him to drop it cold than catch it. As captain.
Nonsense. Hyperbole much? You're telling me it was common for him to drop the pill cold when Carter made a break and passed it to him in the clear?
But regardless, whatever McCaw may or may not have done doesn't excuse errors committed by Cane in this game.
For the record I think Canes progressing well and at a higher level than I thought he'd be at this stage. It's been an impressive comeback. But Ardie is in the form of his life and is definitely the better 7. So what to do? Can Cane do the job at 6. Nobody else has exactly staked a claim to that position.
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@Rancid-Schnitzel TBH duck what numbers they wear, cane, ardie, and read is our best lose trio. They can chop and change positions as needed
