Highlanders v Crusaders

Siam

Brilliant win.
 
Chalk 1 up for try scoring teams, game situation be damned
 
Highlanders winning against the top teams with only 30 percent of the ball - masterful game plans, clarity and player buy in
 
After years (decades) of dreading this fixture against the arrogant red and black feckers, to see what this team did today was blissfull.
 
Enough of the "closer than the score reflects" bollocks to! The landers pretty much led for 75% of the game, the Crusaders were playing catchup before half time and the southern boys were laughing and celebrating with 7 to go. Comfortable bonus point win
 
Dixon was everywhere and put in a huge effort, Whitelock relishing the smash 'em role
 
Some good niggle in that game "it was 5 on 1" from Crockett a great retort to that little whistle blower who loves being the centre of attention
 
Celebrate well tonight Highlanders, that was a performance befitting your defending Champions status

Samurai Jack

Sorry but when you criticize a great servant for NZ rugby and a very good player like Ellis like 13 year old school boys it just seems silly. So he isn't on a par with Smith. So who in the world is at the moment?

Tim

He did not even come close to playing well. He is a long way from All Black class. Stop being so precious.

Samurai Jack

Didn't say he was "All Black class" . Would love for posters to be less bitchy in their comments though. Tis all. Stop being so precious.

sparky

Great game, one of the best in Super Rugby for a while. Aaron Smith is the best player in the world right now. Sopoaga Vs Cruden for the All Blacks is now an interesting call.
 
Coaching master class from JJ.
 
Fantastic crowd. Wonderful to hear that sort of passion in NZ Rugby.

Billy Tell

Great game, it had it all: including a singing crowd and a couple of classic mullets (Tim Boys...).
 
I blame Blackadder for bloody well choosing feckin Fonatia to start. He's just not Super Rugby level, and I harp on about it every week, because it annoys me: slow, poor defence, average options on attack. I am personally delighted he is heading off-shore, and I hardly ever say that.
 
Full credit to the Landers who were pretty sublime after the first 20 minutes. Backline was a joy as always, and Dixon/Whitelock can be very happy with their night's work.
 
But my main message: bloody hell Todd - start Crotty, start Moody, start Barrett.
 
Oh, and I reckon Dagg will be back in black. I wonder if they might be tempted to go Smith (14), Dagg (15), and Naholo (11 - can he play 11...?)

booboo

Well I didnt see that coming. 
A couple of things:

Luke Whitelock. He's always been better than his reputation.
am pleased for Canerbry that the Crusaders won the game that he watched. The game where Smith was lost and got dominated and where Mo'unga was better than Sopoaga.

SammyC

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tim" data-cid="579588" data-time="1463145029">
He did not even come close to playing well. He is a long way from All Black class. Stop being so precious.</blockquote>
 
You said the same about dagg earlier in the thread who was bloody excellent all night 
I seriously doubt you watched the game

hydro11

I wasn't that impressed with Dagg last night. He did some good stuff but looked a bit rattled and did some bad offloads which put his team under pressure. His kicking game is always impressive though.

SammyC

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="hydro11" data-cid="579624" data-time="1463175668">
I wasn't that impressed with Dagg last night. He did some good stuff but looked a bit rattled and did some bad offloads which put his team under pressure. His kicking game is always impressive though.</blockquote>
 
Well in terms of all black selection he definately threw less "bad offloads" than a certain Chiefs midget has in the last couple of weeks

Crazy Horse

I got on here this morning looking forward to reading what everyone thought of a cracking game of footy only to see a bitch fight has erupted. It would be nice to if one day we could have a thread involving the Crusaders that doesn't deteriorate into handbags. Both sides are as bad as each other. It's boring.

pukunui

What a game. Wouldnt have picked that outcome after 10mins. 
If anything i would say the score was closer tgan the contest suggested not the other way. Highlanders seem unstoppable when on a roll. Crusaders just had too many dud players holding them back (i like the crusaders btw so no need to get offended) Romano, Fonotia and Mcnicol not up to it. Stupid considering Blackadder played cute keeping Crotty and Barrett on the bench until the game was gone. 
I did however think the saders were dudded by the tmo twice for their non tries. The read one was exactly the same as several recent ones that were given because there was no 'clear and obvious separation'. Im happy for those not to be given but thats not how it has been ruled in recent games. The romano one i didnt have a problem with. You see players take a final lunge when going to ground at pretty much ever breakdown that is going forward. Not sure what the point of the tmo is if the ref is just going to talk over him and make a call. In this case i dont think the tmo agreed. When the ref told him what he saw he said 'ah ah yes' then tried to get him to look at it again. Has to be one or the other imo. Ie. Ref looks at big screen replay and makes a call or the tmo makes it and puts it up on the bigscreen like league. This bullshit interaction where they try not to disagree with eachother openly but speak in code is stupid. Either that or turn off the ref mics do they can actually talk about it without appearing to disagree.

Mattasaurus

In the warm light of a christchurch morning...I am one happy rugby fan. 
Cracking game, no injuries to speak of and the fellas contesting higher honors largely enhanced their chances. 
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

SammyC

I got a bit side tracked defending my boys :) 
Although I'm happy for anyone to unload on fonotia. 
I thought he had turned a corner this year, but put him up against an opponent with pace and he is the "donkey" someone described him as in the first couple of pages. Crotty made a couple of excellent tackles on faddes when he came on. 
But agree100% with the posters above, great game. Best of the season I think. 
Looking at the highlanders, Dixon was massive. He hasn't started the season as consistently as others but last night proved he's AB material. So hard and physical in the collision, and excellent in the lineout. 
Ben smith is the best back in the world. 
Naholo is clearly the first winger picked in the ABs this year

broughie

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="KiwiMurph" data-cid="579511" data-time="1463132082">
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I think Dixon just played his way into the ABs. The Smiths, Sopoaga and Naholo were excellent. Fekitoa was ok but not that great. 

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I don't think Fekitoa was that bad. It was interesting to see him in a role as distributor and I think his passing and decision making was not that bad. He is a beast as a defender.

Mattasaurus

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="broughie" data-cid="579638" data-time="1463177975">I don't think Fekitoa was that bad. It was interesting to see him in a role as distributor and I think his passing and decision making was not that bad. He is a beast as a defender.</blockquote>
Yip, think this time at 12 with less space and time will only help him when he moves back to his preferred 13. His defense is good and we must remember he is a known quantity now so teams do not hang off him...he's one of the key targets for rush defences...but of course that leaves opportunities for those inside and outside... 
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Chris B.

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="pukunui" data-cid="579630" data-time="1463177125">
<div>

I did however think the saders were dudded by the tmo twice for their non tries. The read one was exactly the same as several recent ones that were given because there was no 'clear and obvious separation'. Im happy for those not to be given but thats not how it has been ruled in recent games. The romano one i didnt have a problem with. You see players take a final lunge when going to ground at pretty much ever breakdown that is going forward. Not sure what the point of the tmo is if the ref is just going to talk over him and make a call. In this case i dont think the tmo agreed. When the ref told him what he saw he said 'ah ah yes' then tried to get him to look at it again. Has to be one or the other imo. Ie. Ref looks at big screen replay and makes a call or the tmo makes it and puts it up on the bigscreen like league. This bullshit interaction where they try not to disagree with eachother openly but speak in code is stupid. Either that or turn off the ref mics do they can actually talk about it without appearing to disagree.
</div>
</blockquote>
 
I think there was clear separation on the Read try - it looked like Aaron Smith got his hand in there and if anyone was forcing the ball it was Smith. I have no problem whatsoever with that decision. At that point we were also running some great angles and cutting the Highlanders up. Would have been a deserved and well worked try.
 
The Romano one - well, I've seen those given and I've seen them not given. You can make a case that momentum got him there and if you watch in real time it looks pretty good. If you slow it down, you can clearly see him lever forward off his right arm, so you can make a pretty clear case for double movement as well. Would certainly have been handy if it had been given, but it wasn't and I'm not going to quibble. Romano gave away a stupid early penalty, but generally I thought he went OK.
 
As Canebry correctly says (in a roundabout way) - if you leak five good tries it's hard to complain. Fonotia is being given his caning (I thought he'd get pulled at half time). If Toddy had his time again, I'm sure he'd start Crotty. The other bad miss that sticks in my mind was Todd buying the Faddes' dummy - and that's another half-step given to Ardie. (my Dunedin bro-in-law tells me Faddes used to play flanker in under-age rugby).
 
Overall, I'm going to blame Johnny McNicol. If he'd pulled out the half-pike, double somersault when Ben Smith clattered him in the air I reckon we might have played the rest of the game a man up. I've only seen it once, but my impression was that Ben launched himself from a long way out and it was a pretty low percentage challenge. I will have another look.

ploughboy

romano try i thought was a 50/50 call.what gets me though is when it gets to the tryline the ref goes all technical but in general play you can get away with just about anything.(rolls, crawls ,anykind of movements)

booboo

IMO:

Romano = try
Read = not

jegga

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Canerbry" data-cid="579578" data-time="1463139540">
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Careful, if you even mention him you will be called all sorts of names, which in the fern circlejerk counts as inspired debate.
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Mods, can you shift this post to the victim mentality thread?

The Silver Fern

Highlanders v Crusaders