Super Rugby Team Of The Week - Round 9

Canes4life

Fair call. 
Going off topic a bit wouldnt you think it would be smart of Barrett to take a non kicking approach to games like Cruden so that Hansen and co have nothing to judge. Obviously Barrett wanted to persist with his goal kicking in the first place to get a notch up on Cruden but that game on Saturday didnt do him any favours. The question now is does he back himself to turn it around against the Lions or does he pass the duties to Woodward...

Canes4life

Fair call. 
Going off topic a bit wouldnt you think it would be smart of Barrett to take a non kicking approach to games like Cruden so that Hansen and co have nothing to judge. Obviously Barrett wanted to persist with his goal kicking in the first place to get a notch up on Cruden but that game on Saturday didnt do him any favours. The question now is does he back himself to turn it around against the Lions or does he pass the duties to Woodward...

MN5

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Fair call. 
Going off topic a bit wouldnt you think it would be smart of Barrett to take a non kicking approach to games like Cruden so that Hansen and co have nothing to judge. Obviously Barrett wanted to persist with his goal kicking in the first place to get a notch up on Cruden but that game on Saturday didnt do him any favours. The question now is does he back himself to turn it around against the Lions or does he pass the duties to Woodward...
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.....I think it's probably best that he doesn't pass anything to Woodward judging by what happened over the weekend......

Canes4life

hahahah i actually had a laugh to myself when Woodward dropped that ball. Has the other N.Z teams paid him off to fuck shit up for the Canes. First he kicks the ball away in the 79th minute against the Highlanders and then he decides to bomb it against the Chiefs. Maybe the Canes should sub him when the score is close near the end from now on. Crickey.

taniwharugby

Rennie says Cruden has been practising his kicking and likely to take over in the next week or so from D-Mac, based on some of BB's kicks, you would wonder if he has been

Canes4life

Yeah I read somewhere Cruden may take over the duties in the next week or two just to prove that. Beaudy looks far too casual. Maybe he should pull out the McKenzie smile, that might do the trick.

Unco

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You obviously haven't met enough. If a Crusaders fan started this thread all 15 players would be from Crusaderville. 
OMG five Canes this week. Ring the bias police.
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Nah, Cantabs used to be a shitload worse than they are now, you tend to mellow out when you spend the last eight years with nothing to show for it. You, on the other hand, support the only NZ franchise to never win a thing but still can't help talking your team up as if they're the best and jizzing over Canes players. It's pretty weird, honestly.
 
Anyway, weird XV. TJP and Barrett had their moments of brilliance but you can't just ignore their flaws. TJP's dumb as shit, his pass is still a mess and his kicking is just as bad. Meanwhile it's not just Barrett's goal kicking that is embarrassingly bad, it's his kicking from hand too. And if he doesn't spark one of those moments of brilliance when he has the ball in hand, his backline just has next to nothing to offer. I'd take Cruden's subdued but controlling performance over Barrett's because that's what wins you close games like that and titles.
 
My form backline from the weekend would be Aaron Smith, Mo'unga, McNicol, Havili, Tamanivalu, Pulu, McKenzie
 
McNicol and Pulu are basically the best wingers by default, cause Nadolo's ineligible and the other NZ wingers did nothing. And how you could leave out McKenzie, I have no bloody clue. That "clearing kick" alone is enough to disqualify Ben Smith.

Stormk84

A solid scrum makes the 9/10 look good. And the converse is true I suppose. Just based on the mess that the Chiefs scrum placed Webber and cruden in last weekend, I wouldn't go too far to conclude that Barrett has proven himself over cruden.

Stargazer

Okay, my first XV of the week:
 
1. Reggie Goodes (Hurricanes)
2. Codie Taylor (Crusaders)
3. Owen Franks (Crusaders)
4. Luke Romano (Crusaders)
5. Brodie Rettalick (Chiefs)
6. Elliot Dixon (Highlanders)
7. Matt Todd (Crusaders)
8. Kieran Read (Crusaders)
9. Andy Ellis (Crusaders)
10. Beauden Barrett (Hurricanes)
11. Nemani Nadalo (Crusaders)
12. David Havili (Crusaders)
13. Seta Tamanivalu (Chiefs)
14. Jone Macilai (Crusaders)
15. Damian McKenzie (Chiefs)
 
Sometimes I picked a player not because he was particularly great but because he was better than the rest in that position (for example, Luke Romano, Elliott Dixon, Andy Ellis). This resulted in a relatively large number of Crusaders in this XV. Oh, and I didn't move players to another position.
 
Obviously, if I had been one-eyed in picking my team, I'd put A Dixon at 2, Allardice at 4, Weber at 9, McNicoll at 11, Horrell at 12 and Dagg at 15, but that would be stretching it a bit.

JayCee

considering they touch the ball every phase (most of the time), key for a halfback is decision making, ball handling and obviously passing - TJP was woeful at times at these over the weekend.

ACT Crusader

I'm a fan of TJP's and have been for a few years, but he was poor on the weekend. He was given opportunities (by good go forward) to stamp his authority on that game but made poor decisions. I can live with the odd handling error from the 9 and 10 given their level of involvement with ball in hand, but it was his option taking that sucked. 
And what's happened to his pass??? Even Ellis was hitting his 1st receivers quicker and more accurate than TJP.

Dan54

Well I pretty keen on Barrett, but after watching a replay to really just watch the 10s, I buggered if I know if Beauden outplayed Cruden, AC made a bloody lot of good tackles, and generally just got backline operating quite well. Other thing you have to remember that Chiefs use 2 playmakers with DMac coming into 10 a fair bit, so Cruden not always first receiver whan Chiefs on attack!

broughie

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Nah, Cantabs used to be a shitload worse than they are now, you tend to mellow out when you spend the last eight years with nothing to show for it. You, on the other hand, support the only NZ franchise to never win a thing but still can't help talking your team up as if they're the best and jizzing over Canes players. It's pretty weird, honestly.
 
Anyway, weird XV. TJP and Barrett had their moments of brilliance but you can't just ignore their flaws. TJP's dumb as shit, his pass is still a mess and his kicking is just as bad. Meanwhile it's not just Barrett's goal kicking that is embarrassingly bad, it's his kicking from hand too. And if he doesn't spark one of those moments of brilliance when he has the ball in hand, his backline just has next to nothing to offer. I'd take Cruden's subdued but controlling performance over Barrett's because that's what wins you close games like that and titles.
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Ok his decision making at times is not the best, he knocks on at the worse of times but his passing has improved and he does impact the game positively by creating and scoring tries. The tired response of his pass is shit is old. Open your mind and watch. I know repeating yourself over and over again reinforces your neural pathways and anti Perenara bias. As for Barrett from an offensive perspective he outshone Cruden. His kicking is shite but had Woodward caught that ball his kicking would have been an after thought. He does run up to the ball too directly though when kicking which I don't understand.

Canes4life

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Ok his decision making at times is not the best, he knocks on at the worse of times but his passing has improved and he does impact the game positively by creating and scoring tries. The tired response of his pass is shit is old. Open your mind and watch. I know repeating yourself over and over again reinforces your neural pathways and anti Perenara bias. As for Barrett from an offensive perspective he outshone Cruden. His kicking is shite but had Woodward caught that ball his kicking would have been an after thought. He does run up to the ball too directly though when kicking which I don't understand. 
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Finally someone talks some sense. Maybe you and I were the only ones watching on Saturday.

Crazy Horse

I am going to stick up for TJP. I watched the game on the weekend after reading all the comments so I was expecting to see him play a shocker with brain explosions all over the place. I actually thought he played pretty well. Sure he made a couple of mistakes but nothing as bad as being made out, and I thought his pass was by and large crisp and accurate. And I certainly didn't see a brain explosion.

Stargazer

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I am going to stick up for TJP. I watched the game on the weekend after reading all the comments so I was expecting to see him play a shocker with brain explosions all over the place. I actually thought he played pretty well. Sure he made a couple of mistakes but nothing as bad as being made out, and I thought his pass was by and large crisp and accurate. And I certainly didn't see a brain explosion.
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I agree with you. There's a bit of an anti-Perenara clan on this forum that is very loud, but not necessarily right.

Siam

Thing is a lot of us spied Perenara as the precocious talent he undoubtedly is about 2-4 years ago. He was (still is) a marvelous prospect with all the attributes but over the last 12 months he hasn't really fulfilled expectations. He's arguably got more skills than Smith (a pass can be built) and definitely more than any other kiwi halfback but even at the WC last year Shag and co had no option but to use a keen broken legged (yes I exagerrate) TKB for the big stuff
 
TJP is good, no doubt, but there's something missing in his play when he should be excellent and more error free consistent. Personally I think he's too excitable and almost over keen (Hansen cited that as a reason for his dropping) and I base this on his reactions to kicking out on the full, but also his reactions to some sublime kicks. Treat those two imposters just the same (copyright Kipling) and yes the hand on heart shite at anthem time says "look how passionate I am" - we fucken get it that at that moment the pride will be flowing - never understood why people need to convince that it is. But that's not the issue
 
The issue is, he simply dominated S15 last year and he's gone backwards a bit this past 12 months. He should be challenging Smith not Webber
 
I hope he comes good, I really do, but there are work ons with kicking and passing skills/accuracy and some overtime for Gilbert I reckon

SammyC

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I am going to stick up for TJP. I watched the game on the weekend after reading all the comments so I was expecting to see him play a shocker with brain explosions all over the place. I actually thought he played pretty well. Sure he made a couple of mistakes but nothing as bad as being made out, and I thought his pass was by and large crisp and accurate. And I certainly didn't see a brain explosion.
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Isn't this a form XV?
 
TJ played OK, but not as well as Ellis in my opinion. Ellis certainly made less errors and his pass was much more accurate.

Unco

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Ok his decision making at times is not the best, he knocks on at the worse of times but his passing has improved and he does impact the game positively by creating and scoring tries. The tired response of his pass is shit is old. Open your mind and watch. I know repeating yourself over and over again reinforces your neural pathways and anti Perenara bias. As for Barrett from an offensive perspective he outshone Cruden. His kicking is shite but had Woodward caught that ball his kicking would have been an after thought. He does run up to the ball too directly though when kicking which I don't understand. 
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Anti Perenara bias? I over exaggerated a bit in response to Canes4life's overwhelming manlove but get off your high horse. I was all in on the TJP bandwagon last year, thought he should've been starting when Aaron Smith was struggling with form and was even ignoring that crucial knock-on at the end of the Sydney test. But then he reverted to type in the RWC, was rightfully dropped back to third choice (behind a guy who'd just spent a year on the sidelines) and I've seen little this year that's been anywhere near as good as his form during the Rugby Championship last year. TJP's pass is a lot better than it was earlier in the competition (not hard) but it's still not what I'd consider good, I still see him constantly pass at players heads. And for every piece of individual brilliance he pulls off, he seems to provide a dumb decision. I'd be happy to take the good over the bad if he were a winger but he's not and it shits me off.
 
If it makes you feel better though, I still like him more than Augie Pulu, who's similar in a lot of ways but his dumb decisions are of the "I think I'm Superman" variety. Makes him a fun player to watch at NPC level but frustrating as fuck above it.
 
And no, I don't think Barrett's performance would've been an afterthought if that pass had stuck, I still wouldn't think he's the form 10 of the weekend. No doubt Barrett was the best with ball in hand but he's always been great in that area, running his backline, kicking and controlling territory have been his weaknesses and he wasn't good in those areas. That's why Cruden is my AB 10 and why I said in another thread that Barrett doesn't have the game to work as a starting AB 10 or 15 but is the perfect super sub. Besides all that though, I didn't pick Cruden as the best 10 from the weekend anyway, because I agree he had a quiet game, I picked Mo'unga.

Crazy Horse

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Isn't this a form XV?
 
TJ played OK, but not as well as Ellis in my opinion. Ellis certainly made less errors and his pass was much more accurate.
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Wasn't saying he should be in the form 15, just saying I don't think he played as badly as some are making out.

The Silver Fern

Super Rugby Team Of The Week - Round 9