Chiefs vs Crusaders
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For all the funny stuff during the week the simple fact is all of the Crusaders points were scored by All Blacks (or a guy who should have been last year and will be this year)
And by all accounts those big names in the Chiefs might be cooked.
This seems bad for AB rugby.
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@mariner4life said in Chiefs vs Crusaders:
For all the funny stuff during the week the simple fact is all of the Crusaders points were scored by All Blacks (or a guy who should have been last year and will be this year)
And by all accounts those big names in the Chiefs might be cooked.
This seems bad for AB rugby.
Lol Leicester? As long as he's nowhere near the midfield!
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@mariner4life said in Chiefs vs Crusaders:
For all the funny stuff during the week the simple fact is all of the Crusaders points were scored by All Blacks (or a guy who should have been last year and will be this year)
And by all accounts those big names in the Chiefs might be cooked.
This seems bad for AB rugby.
Actually when you look at that squad there weren't really too many big names playing for the Chiefs.
Weber had a shitter though but the stupid kicking tactics didn't help there; Cane had a pretty good game, got through a heap of work, but Christie was getting turnovers with impunity (I joked about Crusaders leeway at the ruck earlier in the thread but I think he got lucky with a couple); Retallick went off early.
That's really it for big names from the Chiefs in this match.
Of the slightly big names Vai'i was pretty quiet, Tupaea was average and went off fairly early, Taukei'aho was good, Lord pretty anonymous.
Of the not so big names Nankivell had a blinder. Trask was awful, Stevenson was his normal rocks and diamonds, Gatland was Gatland and Finau was way off the pace.
On Christie, that was easily the most complete game I've seen him play. Normally he just tackles, he added
floppingfetching and running in this game. -
@crucial said in Chiefs vs Crusaders:
Too many mistakes tonight.
I said before the game it would be a battle of the coaches. Razor did well with tactics and we got Gatland to get his losing record going again.
The Crusaders cleaning up the penalties was the biggest difference from last week.
A coach who actually identifies problems and solves them... imagine that Fozzie?
Born from a much improved approach at the breakdown. A couple of their tries were born from lightning quick ball, which you just don't get against the Chiefs very often. They were first to the ruck on defence and on attack, even on the kick chase, they were able to get over the ball and then attack. They made a muck. The Chiefs defended hard and attacked with intent yet they couldn't hold onto the ball for more then five rucks. Razor implemented his gameplan to perfection tonight.
Crusaders missing Whitelock, Matera, Goodhue, McAllister, Ennor, Moody & others executed a very comprehensive win.
Well done Razor. Overtook Blackadder's wins as coach today after just 6 seasons. 87% win record - 23 higher than Blackadder & 14 higher than Robbie Deans (of whom had considerably stronger Crusader squads at their disposal including multiple GOAT's and all time franchise legends).
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@machpants said in Chiefs vs Crusaders:
That was shit by 13, he should stay on the wing, cos that was awful
That was Fihaki defending at Centre who came in Leicester was defending at first five with Mounga on the wing .
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Huge choke from the Chiefs
Seriously though, the biggest thing I got from this game is the "learnings" the coaching staff of the Crusaders got from the first game against the Chiefs. The things the Crusaders had obviously worked on was obvious. They didn't attack the breakdown in the first game, this game the adjustment was really obvious. The point I am making, is why don't we see this kind of progression in the ABs? -
@tj said in Chiefs vs Crusaders:
Have to say that Gatland is the 3rd best 10 in the country, even behind a beaten pack he's looked pretty good.
Yeah I was watching it with half an eye on it and saw the Chiefs 10 running onto the ball and throwing passes out in front of his teammates to run into. Wondered to myself who that was because those two skills alone are two things that our top two 10s fail to do consistently (especially when not getting an armchair ride upfront)
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Phew. We were supposed to lose that by about a hundred. To come away with a win is one of the all-time great upsets. Forget North Macedonia besting Italy in football World Cup qualifying; this win takes the cake.
We might actually be a chance of winning this comp!
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@kiwi_expat said in Chiefs vs Crusaders:
@crucial said in Chiefs vs Crusaders:
Too many mistakes tonight.
I said before the game it would be a battle of the coaches. Razor did well with tactics and we got Gatland to get his losing record going again.
The Crusaders cleaning up the penalties was the biggest difference from last week.
A coach who actually identifies problems and solves them... imagine that Fozzie?
Born from a much improved approach at the breakdown. A couple of their tries were born from lightning quick ball, which you just don't get against the Chiefs very often. They were first to the ruck on defence and on attack, even on the kick chase, they were able to get over the ball and then attack. They made a muck. The Chiefs defended hard and attacked with intent yet they couldn't hold onto the ball for more then five rucks. Razor implemented his gameplan to perfection tonight.
Crusaders missing Whitelock, Matera, Goodhue, McAllister, Ennor, Moody & others executed a very comprehensive win.
Well done Razor. Overtook Blackadder's wins as coach today after just 6 seasons. 87% win record - 23 higher than Blackadder & 14 higher than Robbie Deans (of whom had considerably stronger Crusader squads at their disposal including multiple GOAT's and all time franchise legends).
Very debatable point about which coaches had the strongest squads. Deans certainly had the deepest squads, most frontline AB talent, a good dose of razzle dazzle and a couple of the best ever guys in their positions. Blackadder inherited much of that but after 2011 had very little outside back talent most seasons and on top of that he was a terrible backline selector so we saw some shocking combinations. I would say Razor's squads have had much more talented backs across the board and he's had great forward depth generally. So I'd say in order of the best squads it'd go Deans, then Razor then Smallbladder.
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@stag said in Chiefs vs Crusaders:
Cane convincingly outplayed by Christie again. I’d say that Christie would be a shoe in for the All Blacks, but Foster………
Really?? I think you need to watch game again, I agree Christie had a blinder, but Cane had a pearler too, playing how I want a 7 to play at test level. Just watch how incredibly quick he is off ground after a tackle etc, and how good his defence is. I not in anyway taking anything away from Christie who reminds me of Matt Todd, will die for the jersey you think, and part of a pretty good loose forward trio, but not someone who screams test player to me. Papalií is also more of a test type player I think.
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i dont think chiefs got loose forward selection right. finau and vaii got shown around ruck accuracy. we just turned over to much ball whither it was dropped or losed in tackle or lost in ruck,
on plus side our attack ,when we got good ball, actually broke down there defence quite easily.
not quite getting all the love here for nankivell gave them a try cost us one and coughed up the ball easily at least once..thought trask has less bad moments than him.
hopefully there will be a 3rd game -
@chris said in Chiefs vs Crusaders:
@toddy said in Chiefs vs Crusaders:
WTF was Leicester doing there. Really bad read on defence.
That was Fihaki defending at Centre who came in Leicester was defending at first five with Mounga on the wing .
Early days for him but Fihaki has been disappointing. Hopefully NPC is not his limit.
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@old-samurai-jack said in Chiefs vs Crusaders:
Huge choke from the Chiefs
Seriously though, the biggest thing I got from this game is the "learnings" the coaching staff of the Crusaders got from the first game against the Chiefs. The things the Crusaders had obviously worked on was obvious. They didn't attack the breakdown in the first game, this game the adjustment was really obvious. The point I am making, is why don't we see this kind of progression in the ABs?A bit unfair. This was one game. We often see, even with Fozzie’s coaching, the ABs change things against a team second time around to good effect.
Being able to change during a game is the thing I would like to see.
Chiefs did that in game one but kept banging their heads against the wall this time.
Definitely a difference in the way that the Saders attacked the breakdown and they also caught the Chiefs with a poor night in that area.
Yep, looking forward to game three if we get one. Hopefully that time Gatland isn’t in the coaches seat.
We were well outplayed this week and the Saders deserved the win. -
However (you knew there was a however coming
), we also need to beat the ref. Saders seem to be judged to different tolerance levels. This isn’t a moan, it is a fact. You can argue that they have earned that over years but if I had the time and desire to go over the game with a stopwatch and comparative eyeI am pretty certain that I would find that on average turnovers are called very quickly when Sader hands are dangling into the tackle area while opposition players are left longer and once cleaned or partially cleaned, it is waved away.
One appalling ref attitude last night was the professional foul from Mounga. Cane questioned why such a deliberate penalty was waved away as any old penalty offence and was told that it was because the act was in their own half. WTAF? It killed an obvious counter attack opportunity (which is why it was done) and besides that was totally against the spirit of the game. At the very least Mounga deserved admonishing and the team placed on a warning for deliberate penalty offences. It smacked of tolerance for how they play.
