Australia v All Blacks - Bled I
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@TheMojoman said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@Steve said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@taniwharugby said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
Stevenson has been released, so he won't be playing.
All Blacks hopeful Shaun Stevenson will leave the team before their Bledisloe Cup trip to Melbourne in a fortnight, despite impressing in training.
Mafileo is still with the squad though.
Ah Jesus . What a waste.
Foster is an idiot.
Considering the compliments he's publicly given to SS, you wonder if it was Schmidt and/or McLeod who had reservations.
Lip service for armchair critics like us who were calling for him to play
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@Duluth said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@canefan said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
Lip service for armchair critics like us who were calling for him to play
He was called in as injury cover and then released when players were fit again. It’s pretty straight forward
Sure, but that's injury cover for a guy that wasn't required in the 23, that there was plenty of other cover for anyway.
Maybe they just wanted to get him in and see if his ears could hack a long haul flight I guess, in case Will's boat gets delayed.
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@taniwharugby said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@Victor-Meldrew you'd think the head coach would have final say if he wanted someone that the others didnt or were on the fence with.
You'd imagine and hope he'd make his decision based on input from the people working with the player - McLeod & Schmidt.
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@Bones said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
Did they actually say that, or is that just hit and hope from you?
No, I read things.
Foster told Sky Sport. “We’ve got pretty specific job requirements on both sides of the ball.
“On the attack side, he’s proven to be outstanding. He should be very proud of his year. “We’ve seen a massive improvement in the defensive structural stuff – the tackle and the contact work – but we still want to see a bit more in that space. “The fact he’s going to come in and be with us, maybe for those first two Tests, is a great opportunity to get a good read of that.”
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@Victor-Meldrew sure, but I very much doubt if someone at this level is so shit that the other 2 coaches think he is so far out of his depth but one does, but again, I expect if it came down to it, if Fozzie wanted to give him a run, he'd have had a run.
But at the end of the day, they didnt give him a shot for whatever reason, and the way things are looking now, we would need to have at least a couple of injuries for him to make the RWC squad.
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@KiwiMurph said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
Wallabies have beaten ABs in Aus pre-world cup in the last 4 RWC years.
07 - MCG
11 - Suncorp
15 - Homebush
19 - PerthAnd it’s funny that Oz did worst or in the case of 07 equally as bad, as the ABs.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
the tackle and the contact work
Oh well that makes complete sense now.
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I don’t get the conjecture around Stevenson. We needed cover because of several factors and he was bought in as cover.
Those that were originally named in the squad and were able to travel didn’t fall in the shower pre game or pull up lame in the warm ups - so they played and Shaun sat on the sideline.
It didn’t have anything to do with work ons or some mythical internal disagreement between coaches. They didn’t need him for the first two tests and now for the Bledisloe we have a few other players back.
Good luck to Shaun in the NPC because he may well get the call up again if someone goes down.
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Wouldn't be shocked if he was in the RWC squad, TBH. Maybe an injury slot or one of the other wings fails to measure up.
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This post is deleted!
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@ACT-Crusader said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@KiwiMurph said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
Wallabies have beaten ABs in Aus pre-world cup in the last 4 RWC years.
07 - MCG
11 - Suncorp
15 - Homebush
19 - PerthAnd it’s funny that Oz did worst or in the case of 07 equally as bad, as the ABs.
I was at the 07 one , they played McAlister at 13 as a bit of an experiment to see if he could provide cover there, I was sitting behind the posts watching Mortlock turn him inside out.
Dont think he played there again .
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@Bones said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
they wanted to work with him in camp
Did they actually say that, or is that just hit and hope from you?
Regardless, I remain thoroughly unconvinced about these "issues" which I haven't seen any explanation of. Especially so when you consider the top two fullbacks are Beauden McShovelshit and a guy who makes as many errors as unbelievable plays.
The kind of unbelievable plays we've seen Stevenson do, but without as many errors.
Didn't bother watching Stevenson defend this year?
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@antipodean Too busy on Vaai and Clarke watch.
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@antipodean but seriously, what was it you spotted that might be issues?
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@ACT-Crusader said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@KiwiMurph said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
Wallabies have beaten ABs in Aus pre-world cup in the last 4 RWC years.
07 - MCG
11 - Suncorp
15 - Homebush
19 - PerthAnd it’s funny that Oz did worst or in the case of 07 equally as bad, as the ABs.
Whereas in 2003 we tore them a new one!
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@Bones said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@antipodean but seriously, what was it you spotted that might be issues?
To me his positioning defensively and tackling left a lot to be desired. Often he looked uninterested in actually making a tackle - merely grabbing at an attacker and being easily beaten.
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@kiwiinmelb said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@ACT-Crusader said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@KiwiMurph said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
Wallabies have beaten ABs in Aus pre-world cup in the last 4 RWC years.
07 - MCG
11 - Suncorp
15 - Homebush
19 - PerthAnd it’s funny that Oz did worst or in the case of 07 equally as bad, as the ABs.
I was at the 07 one , they played McAlister at 13 as a bit of an experiment to see if he could provide cover there, I was sitting behind the posts watching Mortlock turn him inside out.
Dont think he played there again .
I watched that at a rugby club in Canberra and I recall an Aussie former player or coach talking pre-game about how Lucky leads with the shoulder on defence and leaves himself open to be beaten. And sure enough the Evil Wizard exposed it.
Was a strange game and I know many bemoan our second half performances, but that was a Jekyll and Hyde game where we basically dominated in the first half without it looking like we got out of 2nd gear and then we put in a 2nd half where we couldn’t land a shot, looked like we were playing in quick sand.
And yes it was a “famous victory” for the Wallabies…
Stuff
