Blues v Highlanders
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I loved this game.A true hard fought Kiwi derby.The wonderful moments silence for the fallen Constable Hunt,with helicopter above.The emotion of Caleb Clarke who had in recent hours lost his grandfather,then being able to honour him with his try.The continuation of the Blues resurgence for most of the first half.Then the great fight back from the tenacious Highlanders who got their noses in front shortly after half time.This coinciding with the worst period of play from the Blues these last three games.Two lost lineouts,very poor box kicks and general sloppiness.Then regrouping and scoring a majestic driving maul try.The impetuosity of the veteran hooker diving over the ruck to drop the ball short,and a dangerous breakout .The cruel mistakes from the young Scott Gregory from probing kicks,he is a much better player than that.The most beautiful pickup of a ball at speed from Beauden Barrett,just class.Then to finish this enthralling encounter,the three battles won in the war when the trenches were threatened,down in the far corner,the maul,the scrum and the lineout.The newly arrived hooker with a grenade in his hand to be lobbed into said lineout.You could almost feel his trepidation.The sweat of the coaches who could only sit and watch.Great game!!
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@trodthesod Great post and match. Don't need to comment further now.
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@Snowy said in Blues v Highlanders:
@trodthesod Great post and match. Don't need to comment further now.
Yeah, he covered everything I wanted to say. Great post.
Blues last year would have lost this game. They regrouped really well to save the game with that maul defence. Kudos to Tom Coventry for fixing a huge weakness.
Crowd was incredible, really sat on Hunt for that crucial miss. Huge crowd for thunderstorms and tornadoes.
Great night out.
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@Kirwan said in Blues v Highlanders:
Kudos to Tom Coventry for fixing a huge weakness.
Amen.
Some great mental fortitude that has been severely lacking in the past as well as some, well, fortitude.Coaching team doing well and the new talents like Sotutu and Clarke are being picked and playing lots of minutes. Really enjoying this comp.
Winning helps of course.
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@mofitzy_ said in Blues v Highlanders:
The most beautiful pickup of a ball at speed from Beauden Barrett,just class.
Rupeni like.
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@trodthesod best game of SRA so far.
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I’m watching the replay now, and I can’t understand how the landers try was disallowed? It was clearly kicked out of his hands by Ioane but it turns out that’s not what he was carded for (offside apparently)
Why the fuck have video refs if they can’t step up and make the right calls?
It should be another penalty advantage and the try should stand and Ioane should get ten.
Edit: I see it wasn' game changing at least, as they scored pretty much straight away, which is good.
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@mofitzy_ said in Blues v Highlanders:
The most beautiful pickup of a ball at speed from Beauden Barrett,just class.
Beaudy is just so skillful in the way he can do little things when space is at a premium. Makes things look so easy.
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@pakman said in Blues v Highlanders:
@mofitzy_ said in Blues v Highlanders:
The most beautiful pickup of a ball at speed from Beauden Barrett,just class.
Beaudy is just so skillful in the way he can do little things when space is at a premium. Makes things look so easy.
BB is some player as I've been saying for some time.
Sam Cane, Sam Whitelock, Aaron Smith and Beauden Barrett. All going to be picked for the ABs (if injury free) for a little while more yet.
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@gt12 Worked out better for the Highlanders funnily enough haha. Ioane gets binned and they end up scoring closer to the posts.
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@African-Monkey said in Blues v Highlanders:
@gt12 Worked out better for the Highlanders funnily enough haha. Ioane gets binned and they end up scoring closer to the posts.
100%
If it was a yellow card before scoring, it was a YC after scoring. But you have to be clear and consistent on what gets you a YC
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@Dice said in Blues v Highlanders:
Really impressed with our prop depth - might be as good as I've ever seen it. We now have 6 solid props to work with.
Who knew Renata could scrum so well at loosehead? Small sample, but he's looked real dominate there.
Afeaki has done a really nice job since taking over.
He's brought the Blues scrum a long way since the dark days of Sam Prattley!
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Now the dust has settled on that great battle last Saturday,and watching a replay of that maul where the Blues held the ball up.,the question I have is this.Given that Sotutu was legal,are the backs coming in from the side ok? If they are not the reaction of Tom Coventry in the box is understandable.Phew!
