Springboks v All Blacks I
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I am replying to myself but whatever.
I watched the game secomd time and want to amend some of my earlier comments.
The maul was actually pretty good, we just didnt get any lineouts within strike range.
But our attack is even worse than i thought at first. In the first 20 we got around all black defense three times but kinda drifted into touch twice and De Allende failed to pass when we had an easy two on one.
We had further two shots in the 22, but was way to predictable with carries off nine. The All Blacks did well to fold round, but we didnt make them having to make any hard decisions. Very dissappointing that there isnt any evidence of improvement.
Its pretty clear that SA went into their shell in the second half. I understand the call, but they could have gone for the throat.
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One very marked difference between the breakdown work of the teams.
Boks always have a player beside or directly behind carrier in close stuff. As soon as Bok is tackled, ‘shadow’ shoots in over him and crouches down over him supporting weight with hands. Tackler then places ball back between shadow’s legs. AG seemed to be comfortable so long as shadow didn’t put knee on ground. Very effective method of sealing off.
We seem to follow more traditional cleaning strategy. But a couple of times Bok tackler managed to roll out our side of ruck leaving nowhere for cleaners to put feet. Noticed Irish also did that. AG also didn’t seem bothered.
I’m not clear off top of my head if the legalities!?
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@pakman and @SidBarret that period was largely due to something that hasn’t been mentioned much - the massive lift in defensive intensity from the boks in this test.
Barrett has a PSDT tattoo from the first three minutes. And that intensity lifted again in the 3rd quarter.
Yes the ABs looked lost but better versions of AB have also looked lost in the face of that sort of onslaught.
But the bok attack is woeful. You see crisper passing, more accurate attack patterns and better support lines at every SA high school game.
Huge part of it is we lack a linking loosie. But we also over rely on the maul and scrum to generate points. That’s fine when Pollard is kicking well. But we should’ve been 20 points clear at half.
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You can look at individual pieces of play as much as you want, but the reality is the Boks played basic rugby pretty well. They didn’t have to be that good and were never looking like losing. As many decisions that went against NZ, there were many that went against SA.
This was never a close game and not decided by officiating by a looong way. Without the Boks playing that well
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@Catogrande said in Springboks v All Blacks I:
You can look at individual pieces of play as much as you want, but the reality is the Boks played basic rugby pretty well. They didn’t have to be that good and were never looking like losing. As many decisions that went against NZ, there were many that went against SA.
This was never a close game and not decided by officiating by a looong way. Without the Boks playing that well
And that's the thing. Bok losses in SA to NZ were generally because NZ stepped up and played really well. Boks didn't really have to dig deep. That's what should alarm NZ coaches and players.
NZ aren't making teams raise their game to beat them. In fact, most opponents are probably happy to give NZ the ball to attack with at the moment and defend patiently (because NZ's attack aside from individual magic or a Savea inside pass is non existent), knowing they'll make a mistake, gift a penalty or kick it away aimlessly.
I've rarely if ever seen such a toothless AB attack. Opposition defences aren't stressed enough to create the space to attack into. And ABs kicking and kick/chase game is not forcing any mistakes from which to attack in the broken field.
So many areas to look at. Foster needs to focus on 1 or 2 this week to give the team half a chance next week. Lots of ball catching practice this week I imagine!
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@OomPB said in Springboks v All Blacks I:
@canefan said in Springboks v All Blacks I:
Senatla got 4 weeks in our CC for the same thing on Fassi.It's bloody dangerous practice. More risk of serious harm than an inadvertent high shot
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@pakman said in Springboks v All Blacks I:
@pakman said in Springboks v All Blacks I:
@Old-Samurai-Jack said in Springboks v All Blacks I:
@Tim But then after that, he came right and put the SA prop under pressure. Is it a concentration thing?
First scrum with this AB pack, and that Bok pack with Angus’s calling, is always likely to cause initial scrum instability. Many good refs make allowances.
Just rewatching. I'd be interested in @NTA view, but it looked to me as though Kitshoff pulled that down.
In which case, file with kickable penalty against PSDT for non-release on first Marx jackal, and non-penalty for Cane jackal which AG missed and penalised him for fishing on deck.
Will review today. Was running a women's 7s tournament all yesterday and only managed to get the Wallabies game watched.
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@sparky said in Springboks v All Blacks I:
@pakman said in Springboks v All Blacks I:
He doesn't have a fucking clue. Totally deluded.
He's not wrong about the Bok kick chasers waving their hands looking to slap the ball back. Arendse, and Kolbe, both do this.
Mapimpi in general is a very good kick chaser, but he attempts to catch the ball. He's in control of his jump. Not reckless.
Aside from that, I think I watched a different game to Foster. 🙈
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@Smuts said in Springboks v All Blacks I:
@SidBarret didn’t say it did? But even your cherry-picked examples looked like poor responses to pressure applied in those phases.
The Frizell offside at sacked Bok lineout 5m from line was entirely self inflicted.
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@Chester-Draws said in Springboks v All Blacks I:
@Higgins said in Springboks v All Blacks I:
@ACT-Crusader said in Springboks v All Blacks I:
@No-Quarter I just watching through the game again and I think you are being a little tricky with the truth. For example in the 20-30 minute period Beaudie received the ball as 1st receiver at either set piece or phase play only 3 times. Plenty of other players getting it at first receiver.
Beaudie is either in the second line or out the back during that period also.
He did some good things but he made some poor errors last night even with good ball. This is not even about pushing Mo’unga or any other player, but Beaudie hasn’t looked in control for a while and it sucks because he’s been a great player to watch. Ever since he was a rookie he’s been a high risk high reward player, but he learned to do that with control and and patience. He hasn’t played with control for a while now.
Dare we say it - ever since he went to Japan.
He's never been a good 10. He's a brilliant fullback (the only really good thing he did today, he did when marking at the back). These days he doesn't even shine very much at Super level.
We won't get any better until he is gone. I know it is horrible for a guy that has such individual talent, but he's not an international 10.
Our backline has never run smoothly with him in charge. Oh, we sometimes have flashes of individual brilliance, but never one that functions as a unit.
Boulderdash. If only we could see other games that BB hasn't been at 10 to get some form of comparison. Oh that's right, we have. It's exactly the same (if not worse) when RM is at 10. Same with DMac as well. None of them seem to have any idea about what to do under Foster. You have to blend that brilliant instinctive talent with the right tactics. It's not happening and it's frustrating as all hell to see us getting so little out of these 2 players. But obviously that doesn't just apply to them. It's the whole freaking backline. It's a structural issue.
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Boulderdash. If only we could see other games that BB hasn't been at 10 to get some form of comparison. Oh that's right, we have. It's exactly the same (if not worse) when RM is at 10. Same with DMac as well. None of them seem to have any idea about what to do under Foster. You have to blend that brilliant instinctive talent with the right tactics. It's not happening and it's frustrating as all hell to see us getting so little out of these 2 players. But obviously that doesn't just apply to them. It's the whole freaking backline. It's a structural issue.
and rush defense has really destroyed time and space for attacking players. Rugby is moving back into a grindfest - getting players into time and space is increasingly difficult.
We haven't recognised this, and want to run teams off their feet, when it's just no longer viable with the current way the game is reffed. You may get this if all refs had instructions to not stop for injuries - but that has legal risks. So, you get big munters playing stop/start, and no chance of actually speeding things up to the point where the extra weight becomes a problem. So it's grinding set pieces and penalties.
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Tēnā koe. I'm visiting NZ from my home in Sydney for the first time in several years this week and am writing to you from my hotel room in Christchurch. Over breakfast this morning and at the bar last night, I strained my ears to over-hear conversations about 'Bring On Razor', but all the talk was of the Commonwealth Games or, of all sports, golf - which I'm told is experiencing a renaissance here. No sign of roaming lynch squads, which could be a healthy sign for NZ rugby or, alternatively, that the public has given up.
I did note, however, that the front cover of the NZ Herald this morning is plastered with a full-page editorial calling for Foster to be flushed, although in more restrained terms than that: "A decent man who is out of his depth in a brutal business," was the chosen phrase for the death sentence from the anonymous editorial bench. It was just not five defeats out of six matches, the Herald opines, but the manner of the defeats. "Foster's men are too often cluttered and confused in the execution of their roles." This seems to be a nice way of saying they are playing like headless chooks. Which raises the question of why it took them three years to work that out.
On the plane on the way across the Ta$man, I caught up with the Argentina-Wallabies game and had a premonition of the Bledisloe Cup travelling in the other direction this year. The Wallabies played with real rhythm and intent, as did Los Pumas. There is certainly room for argument whether the likes of Hunter Paisami and Jordan Petaia are better players than their All Black opposites, but there is no doubt in my mind that they are better coached. And that is, and has always been, the problem.
It's really not rocket science. New Zealand Rugby made a catastrophic error in appointing Foster. He may be a nice chap, but he is not an innovator and does not have the imagination to take the game forward. As countless others have pointed out, he's like a hack chef who inherited a five-star restaurant and never changed the menu. NZR need to get the cheque book out now and pay Foster out. It seems they almost certainly will at this point.. But that it was allowed to get this far is an indictment on the entire administration.
OK, I had better go and do some real work.
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@His-Bobness “ It was just not five defeats out of six matches, the Herald opines, but the manner of the defeats.”
It took the lapdog NZ rugby press time, but they’ve finaly reached the conclusion that the Fern, mostly, has had for a fair few years. But at least they got there!
