All Blacks v Ireland - 1st Test
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@Kirwan said in All Blacks v Ireland - 1st Test:
Was pretty annoying watching a side playing three locks throw to a short 8 at the front.
While I don't disagree with you, if you believe the AB stats Savea is the same height as Grace, who seems to be lauded as a lineout gun. A lot of teams use a loose forward at the front to get quick ball. Often they are easier to lift than a bigger lock.
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@Bovidae said in All Blacks v Ireland - 1st Test:
@Kirwan said in All Blacks v Ireland - 1st Test:
Was pretty annoying watching a side playing three locks throw to a short 8 at the front.
While I don't disagree with you, if you believe the AB stats Savea is the same height as Grace, who seems to be lauded as a lineout gun. A lot of teams use a loose forward at the front to get quick ball. Often they are easier to lift than a bigger lock.
Grace has been used as a lock at times by Canterbury (?) so that doesn't make too much sense.
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@Old-Samurai-Jack said in All Blacks v Ireland - 1st Test:
Grace has been used as a lock at times by Canterbury (?) so that doesn't make too much sense.
There are plenty of shorter locks in NPC teams, or even SR teams (looking at you Blackwell).
If you compare Grace to Christie (1.85/1.86 m).
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@Stargazer if he frizzed up his hair he'd get at least another few centimetres
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@nzzp said in All Blacks v Ireland - 1st Test:
@Stargazer if he frizzed up his hair he'd get at least another few centimetres
Now that we know he's Polynesian he can start growing a ginga afro.
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@Nepia said in All Blacks v Ireland - 1st Test:
@nzzp said in All Blacks v Ireland - 1st Test:
@Stargazer if he frizzed up his hair he'd get at least another few centimetres
Now that we know he's Polynesian he can start growing a ginga afro.
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@Nepia said in All Blacks v Ireland - 1st Test:
@nzzp said in All Blacks v Ireland - 1st Test:
@Stargazer if he frizzed up his hair he'd get at least another few centimetres
Now that we know he's Polynesian he can start growing a ginga afro.
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@Stargazer said in All Blacks v Ireland - 1st Test:
@Bovidae Grace is 1.93m and Christie 1.86m.
Grace played at lock for NZU20s and for Canterbury in his first year.
Photo from 2019.
That would be correct Dallas McLeod is 190 cm and Grace is a bit taller in this photo.
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Reece's 29th minute try was due to a very laboured, and inaccurate, pass from Sexton. I guess he had gotten his head knock when he slipped into a tackle a few phases earlier.
Up until that point the game was pretty even. NZ making some mistakes, but our set-piece was better.
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On the 33 minute mark, Ireland have begun to look tired, and Savea gets his excellent Fringe running game going - it's probably game over if you give an AB team with a 9 point lead that bit of time and space.
Beauden Barrett defending very well. Kicking game pretty good too, after an early nothing kick.
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Ireland's kick chasing in the 1st half was poor, and their defensive line-speed wasn't as good as usual. ABs clean out was much better, and they shifted the point of attack when using forward ball carriers better than last year. Looked like a few backline moves executed with players standing deeper.
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Enjoyable test match and it will be interesting to see if Ireland can bounce back. There was certainly enough positives for Ireland to take out of the match that if they can get these things right, then they can win.
They were extremely competitive in the forwards / breakdown, but we just capitalised on their (often forced) mistakes ruthlessly. If they had managed to get one of the two (correctly) disallowed tries and avoid Reece's runaway then suddenly the score is 35-26 which is certainly much closer.
I predict they will come out firing again, and the final to be within a score. If we get up (which I do put us down as favourites for), then I predict the series will go down the well trodden AB series path of a 3rd test blowout in our favour. If Ireland can get up ... then it may just come down to last man standing! A few other comments
I really like O'Mahoney as a player, but man he's a ref whinger. It's really boring.
Stuart Barnes thinks Cane is toast and is holding Ardie back.
Scott Barrett, above discussion aside, had a great game.
The Ioane / Tupaea axis worked really well and I'm excited about seeing this again.
Aaron Smith may have been surpassed by Dupont as the premier scrummie in the game, but he's still no slouch .. can he hold on until RWC 2023?Roll on the weekend!
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@Tim said in All Blacks v Ireland - 1st Test:
On the 33 minute mark, Ireland have begun to look tired, and Savea gets his excellent Fringe running game going - it's probably game over if you give an AB team with a 9 point lead that bit of time and space.
Beauden Barrett defending very well. Kicking game pretty good too, after an early nothing kick.
Thank you, I felt like I was watching a different game to some posters wanking on about how bad Beauden's kicking was. He even got blamed for a try as one of his kicks from inside the 22 was caught by an Irish player on the 50m line.
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@No-Quarter Gibson-Park's brainfart was the kind of thing a test player should never do, and gifted the ball to the AB's on Ireland's 22, but Barrett's grubber for Tupaea was absolutely perfect. Beautiful play.
Smith's try was just cruel.
Great vision and execution. -
@Tim said in All Blacks v Ireland - 1st Test:
Reece's 29th minute try was due to a very laboured, and inaccurate, pass from Sexton. I guess he had gotten his head knock when he slipped into a tackle a few phases earlier.
Up until that point the game was pretty even. NZ making some mistakes, but our set-piece was better.
That whole passage of play from the Irish, even before Sexton was pretty untidy, there was a fumble backwards prior to the sexton contact and was a mess from there
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@Tim said in All Blacks v Ireland - 1st Test:
Beauden Barrett defending very well.
Yep, very noticeable at the game that he made some important tackles. The Reece try was from a BB tackle creating a loose ball.
Kicking game pretty good too, after an early nothing kick.
I thought that a couple of kicks from deep in the 1st half could have been better directed when he kicked directly downfield. That could have been BB's intention but there was so much space wider for a wipers kick.
BB was considered in my MOTM voting.
