SRA round 8: Highlanders v Blues
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@kiwiwomble said in SRA round 8: Highlanders v Blues:
@bones there is a kfc fans zone, a group get up celebrating and the barrier collapses and the a fall
They showed on the TV the one guy left at the top, looking down at his mates shocked
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Wow! Loved that! That young loosehead from the Clan looks good (replacement today). Anyone who can stand up to Nepo Laulala at scrum time is worthy of mention.
For the Blues, no. 14 & 15 offer very little and have all season. Ofa played well as did Clarke and Papalii.
For the Clan, the usual suspects Frizell (must be the no.1 starter for the ABs at this stage), Smith, etc play well but I reckon the biggest bow needs to be given to Tony Brown. In every game, you see his influence in attack. -
@mn5 said in SRA round 8: Highlanders v Blues:
@bones said in SRA round 8: Highlanders v Blues:
Tough lines blues, nothing really going your way tonight but still in it.
Please play like that every week Mitch. No more clangers.
Loosies were the difference, Highlanders trio were huge, Paps was on his own.
And a big thank you to the blues fan that made that blues/crusaders call a few weeks ago, it's been a fun comp since eh?
I’m fairly sure I said that after they beat the landers last time.
No I think a rugby fan said it
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@kev said in SRA round 8: Highlanders v Blues:
What a great performance by the Highlanders. The Blues are back to the drawing board. Pretty shit really when you look at the squad.
But they do have nice and pretty hair. That obviously counts for something in that team
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There are not a lot of world class players in nz at the moment. Who makes a world XV? Aaron smith would be in the mix.
So 2 players have really caught my eye as potential future stars. The sadly injured Fokatava. And that young prop De Groot. That guy looks the business. At 22 he will only get better.
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@old-samurai-jack said in SRA round 8: Highlanders v Blues:
Wow! Loved that! That young loosehead from the Clan looks good (replacement today). Anyone who can stand up to Nepo Laulala at scrum time is worthy of mention.
For the Blues, no. 14 & 15 offer very little and have all season. Ofa played well as did Clarke and Papalii.
For the Clan, the usual suspects Frizell (must be the no.1 starter for the ABs at this stage), Smith, etc play well but I reckon the biggest bow needs to be given to Tony Brown. In every game, you see his influence in attack.So much crap is posted about akira >>> Shannon but frizzell is playing really well.
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@nzzp said in SRA round 8: Highlanders v Blues:
@steven-harris said in SRA round 8: Highlanders v Blues:
@tim Blues look very generic..running at bodies ,very South African like ,try to bash you ..!,where the Highlanders are creative looking to create space letting the ball do the work ..
I have no issues with forward physical play. They make metres and dominate. Just have to pick when to use it.
Blues should run away with it if (a) they keep the ball, and (b) stop having brain explosions. NOt convinced either's going to happen
I'm fucking nostradamus.
Brainless, a big step bckwards tonight.
A Smith was the difference. inredible player, arguably player of the SRA comp. Simply incredible.
But,FML
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@kiwiwomble said in SRA round 8: Highlanders v Blues:
@bones there is a kfc fans zone, a group get up celebrating and the barrier collapses and the a fall
Yep I saw that , just thought they were pissed and fell off it.
I was laughing, and will have a look to see what did collapse. -
I almost felt for Papali'i last night he was trying, but I didn't think he had any support from other 2 loosies in Blues, and so Harmon, who played well, looked a lot better. Clan are going to have to come up with a plan to give Smith a break, now with Fakatava gone, there maybe a gap between Smith and hammington, and Smith is so important to them.
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@dan54 last year they ran Smith 80 most games, I think Fakatavas injury certainly thrown a spanner in the works on managing Smiths workload.
I think the Blues really started to wobble and lacked direction after Big Red went off
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@billy-tell said in SRA round 8: Highlanders v Blues:
@old-samurai-jack said in SRA round 8: Highlanders v Blues:
Wow! Loved that! That young loosehead from the Clan looks good (replacement today). Anyone who can stand up to Nepo Laulala at scrum time is worthy of mention.
For the Blues, no. 14 & 15 offer very little and have all season. Ofa played well as did Clarke and Papalii.
For the Clan, the usual suspects Frizell (must be the no.1 starter for the ABs at this stage), Smith, etc play well but I reckon the biggest bow needs to be given to Tony Brown. In every game, you see his influence in attack.So much crap is posted about akira >>> Shannon but frizzell is playing really well.
This was a game where Shannon actually lived up to the TJs hyperbole about him.
Hopefully he can translate that form to higher levels this year.
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Just saw that hit from Hodgman again, and I must say it's pretty sickening. He actually launches off the ground before planting his shoulder in Lentjes' face. Because Lentjes was already being tackled by two other players, he had nowhere to go, which also shows how unnecessary Hodgman's hit was. What I find really bad, however, is that the Highlanders didn't take Lentjes off for a HIA.
It should be a lengthy ban for Hodgman (but he'll probably get 6 weeks reduced to 3), and a stern talking to from NZR to the Highlanders staff about HIAs and the risks of concussion.
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@hooroo said in SRA round 8: Highlanders v Blues:
@kev said in SRA round 8: Highlanders v Blues:
What a great performance by the Highlanders. The Blues are back to the drawing board. Pretty shit really when you look at the squad.
But they do have nice and pretty hair. That obviously counts for something in that team
Shit don’t knock the hair.
NB: The Northland boys always have best hair anyway.
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@nzzp A large part of today’s game is competing physically and winning the contact. But that is always with the objective of creating space for players to run into. The balance seems wrong in the Blues.
No one has a better squad than the Blues including the Crusaders. In the past, half back first fives have been blamed for their lack of success but even with the over whelming player riches they have, they still haven’t established a winning team formula.
Noticeable that the Highlanders have had a lot of success with moves off set piece when forwards are not spread out across the field.
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I’m not going to bag the blues, they’re still above us in the table
Only real comment I had for them was surprised with their scrum, is it four all black props? They should and I think have had before a more stable launch platform for that back line
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@kev said in SRA round 8: Highlanders v Blues:
@nzzp A large part of today’s game is competing physically and winning the contact. But that is always with the objective of creating space for players to run into. The balance seems wrong in the Blues.
No one has a better squad than the Blues including the Crusaders. In the past, half back first fives have been blamed for their lack of success but even with the over whelming player riches they have, they still haven’t established a winning team formula.
Noticeable that the Highlanders have had a lot of success with moves off set piece when forwards are not spread out across the field.
I pointed it out in the game, the blues use of pods is utterly predictable. Almost every time they have a pod of three, in an inverse pyramid. And they always got to the guy out the back. It is really straight forward to defend. When they brought someone like Caleb in from deep or at the cut, boom line break. But the blues normal phase paly is pedestrian.
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So just watched the try scoring highlights of the match, does anyone else think the Highlanders were bloody lucky to get the eventual match winning try?
Firstly there was the holding on when Reiko had a legitimate go for the turnover, but you can understand that being a 50/50. But secondly the Highlanders ran a player in front of the ball who interfered with the player in the best position to stop the try scorer. Considering that the Blues were rightfully penalised for impeding attackers I'm surprised none of the officials bothered to review this.
Is this yet another drawback of the referral system? The Blues had lost their referrals (assuming my timeline is correct) so would a ref then not want to check if a Blues player brought up the issue with them as it may be seen as a referral they aren't allowed? Not saying this was was what happened this time but I find it weird it wasn't even checked.
