Blues 2023
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@Kirwan from the article
"But only if some key corrections are made, starting with the Reds in Brisbane on Friday, including getting their key All Blacks back into something resembling decent form. Star No 10 Beauden Barrett must be top of that list." -
@nostrildamus It's cute you put so much stock in Marc Hinton's opinion, I'm more interested in Leon's.
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@Nepia It's both. We have a game plan to kick (I agree, too much) but the kicks haven't been good too.
We look so much better when we run the ball, and with those loosies and mobile locks, we keep the ball pretty well. I guess it's a case of the Laws currently penalising playing too much, and we have a big pack and want to play in the opposition half.
Add in Clarke, who is the best player in the country at regathering a kick, and it makes sense.
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@Kirwan said in Blues 2023:
@Nepia It's both. We have a game plan to kick (I agree, too much) but the kicks haven't been good too.
We look so much better when we run the ball, and with those loosies and mobile locks, we keep the ball pretty well. I guess it's a case of the Laws currently penalising playing too much, and we have a big pack and want to play in the opposition half.
Add in Clarke, who is the best player in the country at regathering a kick, and it makes sense.
I think makes sense if it's working but I don't think it's been working for a few games, not just this one. Not sure whether they try something new or try to get more accurate though.
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@Nepia it's a tweak IMO. It feels like they want to kick as the first option, it was really noticable how much pressure on the Crusaders it released. I'd rather they kept going until the inevitable penalty (since attacking teams seem to be able to do whatever they like at the ruck at the moment) and kick then.
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@Nepia said in Blues 2023:
The dumb kicking (by everyone, which the article actually mentions) looked more like a game plan than individual players making decisions ... maybe Rangi needs to look in the mirror too instead of acting like the Hammettuer in the press?
If Rangi is telling his 10 to do a 10 metre cross field bomb from his 22 after the team has been under the pump for ages and has hardly seen the ball then I really worry for the ABs next year
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@Crucial if you actually just listen to Leon instead of making up things to worry about, it'll save us all time responding to this sort of fluff.
He credited the Crusaders with disrupting the ruck, putting pressure on us to kick more than we wanted to, and with less accuracy than what we needed.
Look up the after match interview Leon gave that Hinton skimmed through.
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@Kirwan said in Blues 2023:
@Crucial if you actually just listen to Leon instead of making up things to worry about, it'll save us all time responding to this sort of fluff.
He credited the Crusaders with disrupting the ruck, putting pressure on us to kick more than we wanted to, and with less accuracy than what we needed.
Look up the after match interview Leon gave that Hinton skimmed through.
I understood very much what Rangi said. I was responding to a comment of @Nepia that maybe he should take some blame.
Hilarious that you keep diverting attention away from the dumbest piece of play in a weekend full of dumb plays. I watched the game in a room full of neutrals who all laughed and commented on how stupid it was. A couple of ex forwards were happy to declare that they would thump him for that.
It wasn't poor execution under pressure either, it was a deliberate action that put the team immediately back under pressure. The end cost of all that tackling early was a dull, tired attack for the rest of the game. -
@Kirwan said in Blues 2023:
@nostrildamus It's cute you put so much stock in Marc Hinton's opinion, I'm more interested in Leon's.
It's cute how much you defend Beauden
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Yeah "neutrals", sure.
I keep replying because half of what you say is just made up rubbish. The comment above about Leon, case and point, offers nothing to conversation.
It's not smart to say he should have kicked better, it's obvious. It's also not correct to say he's the only one doing it, or that's doing it off his own back. It's not even right to say it was the dumbest kick, that was Sullivan's - yet only BB seems to be getting criticism. I wonder why.
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This post is deleted!
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@Kirwan said in Blues 2023:
It's not even right to say it was the dumbest kick, that was Sullivan's - yet only BB seems to be getting criticism. I wonder why
perhaps because Sullivan had 1 poor kick among a number of excellent kicks.
If Beauden had that ratio no one would mind the odd poor kick.
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@KiwiMurph My point is that BB's good play is completely ignored in the current pile on. He's not playing half as bad as you guys are making out.
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@Kirwan said in Blues 2023:
@KiwiMurph My point is that BB's good play is completely ignored in the current pile on. He's not playing half as bad as you guys are making out.
I was encouraged by his last 15 or so minutes when he started running the ball - looked the best he has all season imo.
However - the first 65 minutes - he failed at either getting the attack functioning or directing the Blues around the field with his boot. His inability to take on the line really stifles the Blues attack which is fairly basic as it is.
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@KiwiMurph We didn't have the ball for the first 30mins, 75-2 for the tackles. The team was completely fatigued.
The Crusaders actually deserve some credit you know.
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@KiwiMurph Yes, and it can also be true that the criticism of BB is now just a mental groove with people just repeating the same thing every week despite what he does on the field.
All the tens are doing these stupid bombs, it's clearly the tactic of the year. Only one is getting constant criticism about it. (Note the word constant).
