Blues v Waratahs
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@african-monkey said in Blues v Waratahs:
@bones Hmmm interesting regarding Akira. I thought he carried strongly (mainly early on) and did plenty on defence.
Someone who I do find sad to watch these days is Blake Gibson. He missed plenty of tackles out there. Sadly I think injuries have finally caught up with him.
He was working hard in the 81st minute and had what 17 tackles? Hardly looking unfit.
Starting to make his open field breaks again too, which had gone as he tightened his game up.
Talking versatility (tongue in cheek here) , but Akira did end up at seven last week…
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@bones said in Blues v Waratahs:
@old-samurai-jack said in Blues v Waratahs:
@bones Hate to call it. The abundance of talent defies belief at the moment.
It's all pretty fresh, untested talent in the greater scheme of things but hey the boks don't even know what test rugby is.
Edit: and it's pretty exciting.
Robinson also could be the lock/blindside cover that they were looking for years.
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@african-monkey It really is sad to see where Blake is now. Defense use to be a real strength of his and he use to lead Super Rugby in tackles, but now you almost want to hide him on defense like a bad defensive 10.
I hope we move on from him, but I also hope he can pick up a nice contract elsewhere where he can make some good money before his body really breaks down.
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@dice said in Blues v Waratahs:
@african-monkey It really is sad to see where Blake is now. Defense use to be a real strength of his and he use to lead Super Rugby in tackles, but now you almost want to hide him on defense like a bad defensive 10.
I hope we move on from him, but I also hope he can pick up a nice contract elsewhere where he can make some good money before his body really breaks down.
Dalton, Hunt and Choat are good options at seven. I suspect if Hunt hadn’t had his issues this year we wouldn’t have seen much of Blake.
But he’s helped when injuries have set in.
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@kirwan said in Blues v Waratahs:
Talking versatility (tongue in cheek here) , but Akira did end up at seven last week…
He also moved to 7 twice in the early rounds, when he was getting his Fern MoTM points.
Two things I've noticed - last night Akira probably took about 10 minutes to get into the game. Maybe someone needs to tackle him a couple of times in the changing sheds.
And the typical perception of Akira in comparison with other players, Sotutu has had a much poorer season overall, but once he played a couple of good games in a row and everyone went mad for him again. Akira has a couple of quiet games and all of a sudden he's a dunce.
@kirwan said in Blues v Waratahs:
@bones said in Blues v Waratahs:
@old-samurai-jack said in Blues v Waratahs:
@bones Hate to call it. The abundance of talent defies belief at the moment.
It's all pretty fresh, untested talent in the greater scheme of things but hey the boks don't even know what test rugby is.
Edit: and it's pretty exciting.
Robinson also could be the lock/blindside cover that they were looking for years.
I wish that Rangi would actually move him to lock in games, or start him, so we can see if he is that guy.
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@frank Yup came through as a 10.
I remember seeing him first play for Kings College in the 2018 final against St Peters and immediately he reminded me of a mini Dan Carter. Thought we were gonna lose him back to Hawke's Bay like we usually do with out of towners but for once we managed to keep one.
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@african-monkey said in Blues v Waratahs:
@frank Yup came through as a 10.
I remember seeing him first play for Kings College in the 2018 final against St Peters and immediately he reminded me of a mini Dan Carter. Thought we were gonna lose him back to Hawke's Bay like we usually do with out of towners but for once we managed to keep one.
With all the apparent turmoil going on in Auckland I'm not so secretly hoping he's one of the players who decides to ditch Auckland and come home.
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@nepia You sure he took 10 mins to get into game? I thought he made a massive break about 5 mins in where he bumped off Whetton or was that another one? Other than that, you are correct. A couple of below par games and all of a sudden he's lazy and unfit, where as everyone else in the country get a free ride.
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@nepia We'll give you back Tyrone Elkington MacDonald
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@african-monkey said in Blues v Waratahs:
@nepia You sure he took 10 mins to get into game? I thought he made a massive break about 5 mins in where he bumped off Whetton or was that another one? Other than that, you are correct. A couple of below par games and all of a sudden he's lazy and unfit, where as everyone else in the country get a free ride.
My time line might be a bit out, I just remember there were a few plays where he seemed to be going through the motions early on - and I was wondering if that's what his detractors see in their minds every week, but then he got going into his work.
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@african-monkey said in Blues v Waratahs:
@nepia We'll give you back Tyrone Elkington MacDonald
I think he was yours to begin with so best you keep him.
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@crazy-horse said in Blues v Waratahs:
@bones said in Blues v Waratahs:
@crazy-horse said in Blues v Waratahs:
Still keen to see if Sullivan is going to be a running threat at this level, but ball in hand he is almost Carter like in his poise and time. Hope he develops into what he looks like he could be.
Could be like Carter but nowhere near as good in most facets except for pace.
Yeah way too early to say he is anywhere near Carter's level. He may yet fizz into nothing but it's a bloody good start.
Stephen Brett was looking like a Carter clone playing NPC and then he played Super rugby and the rest is history...
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@act-crusader said in Blues v Waratahs:
@crazy-horse said in Blues v Waratahs:
@bones said in Blues v Waratahs:
@crazy-horse said in Blues v Waratahs:
Still keen to see if Sullivan is going to be a running threat at this level, but ball in hand he is almost Carter like in his poise and time. Hope he develops into what he looks like he could be.
Could be like Carter but nowhere near as good in most facets except for pace.
Yeah way too early to say he is anywhere near Carter's level. He may yet fizz into nothing but it's a bloody good start.
Stephen Brett was looking like a Carter clone playing NPC and then he played Super rugby and the rest is history...
Ya reckon? I remember him being promising but can't remember the Carterisms.
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Now thats a good lift -
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@kirwan said in Blues v Waratahs:
@african-monkey said in Blues v Waratahs:
@bones Hmmm interesting regarding Akira. I thought he carried strongly (mainly early on) and did plenty on defence.
Someone who I do find sad to watch these days is Blake Gibson. He missed plenty of tackles out there. Sadly I think injuries have finally caught up with him.
He was working hard in the 81st minute and had what 17 tackles? Hardly looking unfit.
Starting to make his open field breaks again too, which had gone as he tightened his game up.
Talking versatility (tongue in cheek here) , but Akira did end up at seven last week…
FFS Mrs Ioane. You just saw I posted about Ioane and assumed I was having a go didn't you? If you read properly, you'd see it's a fitness concern regarding injury, not workrate. As I said, he got stopped/dropped a few times last night (even went backwards a couple of times) where you would usually expect him to shake off a tackle or two, or drive forward. So just wondering if he has/had an issue he's recovering from (I'm gonna guess at groin/hip) as his power in contact seems to fail him sometimes.
