All Blacks Vs Springboks RC Week 2
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@MN5 said in All Blacks Vs Springboks RC Week 2:
Not that he’s ever been anything more than someone who blandly calls the play
Count your blessings - at least he isn't Miles Harrison
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@Bones said in All Blacks Vs Springboks RC Week 2:
@ACT-Crusader would've been interesting to see what the assessment of Jordan's game would be if he'd given away an intercept try.
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A few random thoughts:
- First 20 built on very quick ball. As Matt Gitteau says, a 10 can't really choose a bad option off quick, go forward ball. Once Boks slowed our ball the backline reverted to type;
- We actually came out of blocks well after HT. First Boks try came after rather odd penalty when Faf tripped over a rolling Brodie. Then their caterpillar maul executed two changes of direction and did the business. That was 53 in;
- At that point Boks got fired up and for a period seemed to disrupt our rucks with Quagga walking through. Hard to gauge how legal, but not blown for 5 - 10 minutes. For second try our backline defence appearded to be asleep and Boks ran from halfway with ABs letting them run TO them. As a result tackles were made well past gainline with ball pretty quick. Spread the other way, and although Le Roux pass a foot forward, had it not been try would still have been scored, and Boks were due a 50:50 call. So Boks had a best a good 15 minutes; and
- Why did Ofa have his kit on as if on bench? The sheds interview suggested he had match shorts on. Pretty odd.
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@Windows97 said in All Blacks Vs Springboks RC Week 2:
@kiwiinmelb said in All Blacks Vs Springboks RC Week 2:
@DaGrubster said in All Blacks Vs Springboks RC Week 2:
I agree, I think Scooter is a starter with Whitelock most at risk.
Scooter’s workrate & physicality has been a big reason for our lack looking as good as it has in the 2 tests
If Frizzell is able to keep this level of performance then I am quite happy to see us rotating the 3 locks heavily with Vai’i used mainly as a sub
Frizzell has been a revelation, I didn’t see that coming,
was convinced they would have to play scooter there ,
now if he can keep that going, we have a selection headache , a good one
Sadly for Whitelock I think his best days are past him, not quite mobile enough, not quite physical enough.
Retallick and Scooter are definitely the best combination, locking these days is a little bit less (though still very important) about the lineout and more about moving bodies at the ruck and being able to carry the ball.
It's work rate and physicality and unfortunately for Whitelock, Retallick and scooter are just more physical than him.
And yet the last rugby game he played he was the best lock on the park out of the 4 AB locks playing.
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@ACT-Crusader This selection dilemma certainly is a different story to 12 months ago.
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@sparky said in All Blacks Vs Springboks RC Week 2:
For the World Cup knockouts, there’s no doubt in my mind that Sam Whitelock if fit starts. One of the all-times greats in Finals Rugby.
I'm still pissed at him for the push on Farrell in 2019. For all he brings, that was a spectacular own goal just as we were getting back into that game.
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Yes, that was dumb and really out of character for him.
I don’t know what it was but he was really in poor form in that year, whether he had been overplayed/exhausted but he was nowhere near his best. Add BBBR who was never fit enough again after his shoulder dislocation, it’s one of part of the jigsaw as to why we got hammered in the semi final.
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@nzzp said in All Blacks Vs Springboks RC Week 2:
@sparky said in All Blacks Vs Springboks RC Week 2:
For the World Cup knockouts, there’s no doubt in my mind that Sam Whitelock if fit starts. One of the all-times greats in Finals Rugby.
I'm still pissed at him for the push on Farrell in 2019. For all he brings, that was a spectacular own goal just as we were getting back into that game.
I’ve never managed to see a replay which shows what Farrell did to trigger that. My guess is that if ref had seen it the penalty would have gone the other way.
