All Blacks v Ireland, 2021 NH Tour
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@dagrubster said in All Blacks v Ireland, 2021 NH Tour:
Ireland were very good today and deserved their win. No complaints.
The ABs were poor and made to look very ordinary by a committed Ireland side who wanted to put us under pressure from the get go.
The AB’s are the best side in the world until they come up against a team that wants to tackle and pressure us. This had shades of the 2019 semi against England.
I have said for some time that NZ rugby are not producing the right kind of players for test rugby that can be successful in RWCs and against the very top sides. Ireland in the autumn is definitely one of those.
A lot has been made of the ABs wanting to play unstructured rugby. We are good at it. However, we either dont understand how or can’t break down a side through our own structured rugby first, to enable us to get in a position where we force them into unstructured game scenarios - pressure them into turnovers, dropped balls, poor kicks etc.
Ireland are one of the most structured sides in the game and it showed throughout the match. They enjoyed a huge amount of possession in the first half and we hade to make over 140 tackles. In one half. That required defensive effort will always come back to hurt you later in the game.
At halftime we must have talked at length about holding on to the ball, having possession to play our game that allows territory and then opportunities will follow. We kicked the ball away 3 times in the first 3 minutes and Ireland duly scored. It’s not smart rugby.
We had a huge amount of dropped passes and threw the ball into touch a few times today. Lots of those dropped balls were unforced errors tbh and we looked a panicked side trying to attack against a composed and organised Irish defence. We couldnt impose ourselves enough to force Ireland into making errors or breaking up up their defensive organisation.
Perhaps the 16 week quarantine bubble tour has finally affected the squad and the performance of the team. We saw that with SA in the RC when they lost games they perhaps shouldn’t have.
The biggest frustration is we have known for 4 years we struggle when confronted with a side like this. For all the gains we have made this year, we haven’t addressed this massive problem at all and we looked as poor as we did that night against England in the RWC loss.
Do we have the players to turn this around? Is super rugby aotearoa and trans Ta$man rugby good enough preparation for how todays test rugby is played? Is it a surprise when the assistant coach who was part of the team that oversaw the decline of AB rugby over the last 3 years and the semi loss against England, is now the head coach and showing the same weaknesses in how his side performs?
Congrats to Ireland. Well played. Lots of work to do for the all black squad over the next couple of years.
Great post. Our structured play seems to consist of kicking the ball. Notable how many carries Ireland made without error and how taxing that was on a resilient defence. So coaches certainly have questions about our game plan.
A lot of criticism of players on here seems to be frustration with not winning. But we do lack running prop options, our kicking from halfback wasn’t good, our off the ball niggle caught up with us, and in the backs we want to pass rather than phase.
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@tim said in All Blacks v Ireland, 2021 NH Tour:
43 minutes and Irish hooker goes through tackle of Blackadder to score. Passive defense again. Can't play guys like him at 6 against big packs. Ineffective.
Yeah, I am struggling to see why so many people rate him so highly.
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@tim he has been wildly inconsistent this season, some great stuff then looks out of his depth.
Samisoni should get bench spot or start next week, probably the find (if you can call him that) of the season.
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@taniwharugby said in All Blacks v Ireland, 2021 NH Tour:
@tim he has been wildly inconsistent this season, some great stuff then looks out of his depth.
Samisoni should get bench spot or start next week, probably the find (if you can call him that) of the season.
Yeah, he plays a genuinely good game about one in three starts. It's been the same for about three or four years now. Not up to it.
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Still want Foster? Ireland were immense but what a fucking debacle. Clueless and shit.
And btw it doesn't freaking matter who we have at 10. With these clowns and tactics its lateral bullshit regardless.
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Easy to say after the fact (and someone might've already), but I really felt Taukei'aho should have been involved in some capacity. His ball-running and accurate lineout throwing would've been useful in a tight gam e like this.
Restarts have been shoddy at times this year, lineouts have been bad. Our scrum isn't dominant as it once was (to be fair, I don't think Franks was ever that dominant - not like Hayman). And our basic skills seem to fall apart under pressure - not an easy fix!
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@bobily2 said in All Blacks v Ireland, 2021 NH Tour:
Easy to say after the fact (and someone might've already), but I really felt Taukei'aho should have been involved in some capacity. His ball-running and accurate lineout throwing would've been useful in a tight gam e like this.
a fair few said that before the game.
Hooker suddenly has some depth; lock not so much. At 12, the cupboard is just bare.
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@rancid-schnitzel said in All Blacks v Ireland, 2021 NH Tour:
Still want Foster? Ireland were immense but what a fucking debacle. Clueless and shit.
That ship has sailed, he is there through to 2023 RWC.
@Tim just reading some of the stats, 50 tackles by our starting loosies, 42 by Blackadder and Dalton.
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