Australia v All Blacks - Bled I
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@gt12 said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@Duluth said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
Biggest negative in the match was the cleanout work of the tight five. I don't think it's a personnel issue as it's happened multiple times in the last few years with different players involved. It's like we have too many players holding width for the next phase and we become easy to disrupt.
Is it because we need extra width when we play Mo’unga at 10? When we go around the ruck it isn’t a problem, but maybe we are needing too many big bodies just a touch too wide when we go lateral so that we can set up the wrap plays they seem to prefer for Mo’unga?
I don’t think that’s the case. From my armchair it’s more about having more bodies in the play to create number mismatches. The short passing / offload game that we saw under Henry is back and then once we have created go forward and drawn in opposition defenders then we go wide
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@nostrildamus said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
Maybe Christie fits their game plan better? But Weber seems more assertive to me, I'd prefer him.
I'd see Christie as back up for Nuggie, and Roigard in pole position against Weber and Fakatava as impact/closer.
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I’m a little blown away with what a great player Scott Barrett has become.
I almost looked at him as a token selection due to the sir name when he was first selected, I got that wrong.
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I’m not too concerned about that.
If we are getting carded then other sides will be too.
We keep up our physicality and breakdown work we won’t be under pressure with penalties etc.
We need to have that consistency in performance, which we have seen so far this year
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@KiwiMurph said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
Hard to get a full sense at the ground.
Some thoughts
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Good crowd and good pyrotechnics but the sound tends to go up. I thought the atmosphere was better under the roof at the Marvel last year but the better game probably contributed to that. To get 84k at a Bledisloe given how the Wallabies are going is a good effort. The G is an excellent venue to get in and out of though.
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Jordan is something else. We are usually blessed with good wingers but he is on another level.
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I think we really need DMac in the 23 in the big games come RWC. That first 30 mins or so Wallabies defence was good and at times we needed more variety. Other teams will have that same strong defence for 80 minutes and we will need to mix it up.
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Jordie gets through an absolute mountain of work and has so many good involvements. Easily our best 12 since Nonu.
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Roigard is our bench 9. Was watching him very closely and he was superb - his service was excellent and he made a huge difference. So much better than Christie it isnt funny.
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Wallabies need to take some things off of Gordon's plate. He's had to do everything - goal kick, restart, kick for touch, run everything at 10.
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Best I've seen Clarke look for ABs for a long time. Might have been last chance saloon if he didn't (Telea far better left wing option though). All the bench was good.
Scott Barrett is the first lock picked. Currently nz rugby player of the year imo. Which means frizzell can stay at 6. I’d be tempted to start whitelock ahead of retallick
Jordie at 12 is quickly becoming world class and in the discussion for world XV.
I thought the work down the blindside was a good option. Made loads of yards at times.
The replacement props were actually ok this week.
Missing link = impact loose forward. We could really do with a replacement loosie with genuine impact.
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@kiwiinmelb said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
I’m a little blown away with what a great player Scott Barrett has become.
I almost looked at him as a token selection due to the sir name when he was first selected, I got that wrong.
You did. It’s surname.
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@Billy-Tell said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@kiwiinmelb said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
I’m a little blown away with what a great player Scott Barrett has become.
I almost looked at him as a token selection due to the sir name when he was first selected, I got that wrong.
You did. It’s surname.
2027 he will captain ABs to RWC glory, Sir Scott Barrett
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@kiwiinmelb said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
I’m a little blown away with what a great player Scott Barrett has become.
I almost looked at him as a token selection due to the sir name when he was first selected, I got that wrong.
1000%. I always saw him as the mutant Barrett who was more of an RThorne than a B Thorn. A decent, but unspectacular squad player who could slot in at 5 and 6 if the genuine article was injured. Given his penchant for cards, his long-term future as an AB also seemed questionable. But fark me he's morphed into something pretty special.
I know this will be a very weird comparison to most but IMHO he's become the kind of player Luke Braid could have been if he'd had the size. I remember seeing him live a few times and his workrate was off the chart. It was ridiculous. SB reminds me of him but with alot more size and power. Again, probably silly comparison, but I'm just trying to highlight how good it is to have a big munter like that with such a phenomenonal engine.
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@Rancid-Schnitzel TBF, all 3 of our current locks have huge motors...and if SB's form continues, we will have to utilise one of SW & BR off the bench, which will probably assist in us getting the best out of them as thier engines probably dont run at full for quite as long as they used to.
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@Billy-Tell said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@kiwiinmelb said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
I’m a little blown away with what a great player Scott Barrett has become.
I almost looked at him as a token selection due to the sir name when he was first selected, I got that wrong.
You did. It’s surname.
As a 60 year old tradie , punctuation isn’t exactly my strong point ,
only time I write anything is when I come on here 😁 -
The thing with Scooter is that he’s had the engine for a long time - best runner of his brothers - so the work ethic and commitment was there. Just had to bring that all together and use it to his advantage out on the park.
The only concerning thing from this test was the number of instances that Scooter was a lone ranger at the breakdown. I hate to see that and does remind me of some of the McCaw days when others went a bit missing.
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@kiwiinmelb said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@Billy-Tell said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@kiwiinmelb said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
I’m a little blown away with what a great player Scott Barrett has become.
I almost looked at him as a token selection due to the sir name when he was first selected, I got that wrong.
You did. It’s surname.
As a 60 year old tradie ,...
only time I write anything is when I come on here 😁bet you can add the zero's to your invoice though
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@dogmeat said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@kiwiinmelb said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@Billy-Tell said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@kiwiinmelb said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
I’m a little blown away with what a great player Scott Barrett has become.
I almost looked at him as a token selection due to the sir name when he was first selected, I got that wrong.
You did. It’s surname.
As a 60 year old tradie ,...
only time I write anything is when I come on here 😁bet you can add the zero's to your invoice though
Maths is never an issue 😎
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@kiwiinmelb said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@dogmeat said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@kiwiinmelb said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@Billy-Tell said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
@kiwiinmelb said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
I’m a little blown away with what a great player Scott Barrett has become.
I almost looked at him as a token selection due to the sir name when he was first selected, I got that wrong.
You did. It’s surname.
As a 60 year old tradie ,...
only time I write anything is when I come on here 😁bet you can add the zero's to your invoice though
Maths is never an issue 😎
unless it's telling the time
"yeah mate i'll be there sometime between 8.30 and 4"
"maybe"
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@MajorPom
I haven't had a chance to re-watch the game, but I suspect that my impressions will still stand:
In the first half the AB ball carriers didn't gain ground effectively, in contrast to the past two tests, and there was a disconnect between the carriers and the pods that should provide support. This wasn't due to Papalii, who hit a huge number of rucks, and was often first there. His carrying was solid but unspectacular. Australia were very effective at countering our forward carries and slowing down our ball by committing more players to rucks. However, that left space on the short side and out wide, which we exploited well when able.
The defence in the first half lacked a bit of heat and accuracy, but Papalii had more tackles than the other three loose forwards combined, and put in some solid hits. Cane has carried his Super Rugby form into test matches this year, which has really surprised me, and is usually good for two big tackles per game. Overall, the team only conceded one try, the lowest this year. If their was anyone whose defence would be singled out in this game, it was Retallick.
In the second half, Papalii's support game and general quality was undeniable. For Ioane's try, he was the first man to the ruck when ALB went to ground in the 22. He goes deep into the game dominating collisions. Cane normally gets subbed off after about 60 minutes. When Australia threatened there were a number of quality defensive plays from him. The maul turnover was really good individual play.
Overall, the AB's ball carrying wasn't up to this year's expectations in the 1st half. Their defence was generally very good after adapting to Australia's pattern. I very much doubt that Cane's qualities on offence would have offered anything more than Papalii's. Very good game from our best loose forward.
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I also re-watched the game last night. Papalii was very busy and made a lot of tackles, but they are never dominant tackles.
There were some bad one-on-one missed tackles from a number of players, not just BBBR (e.g., JB, Rieko, Smith and Telea). Ofa let the front row club down as he missed the only tackle amongst the six of them.
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@Tim said in Australia v All Blacks - Bled I:
I'm rewatching the game now, Papalii is having to charge in off his line to make up for the clean out. And yet he is able to maintain his feet.
If you don't think he had a great game, then you are insane.
Tim calling everyone on the forum insane.
« Ah sure he was grand » to speak like the Irish but I don’t think he had a great game just solid.
At the end of the day your colours are nailed to the mast: cane is always shît and paps is always amaze balls
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@Billy-Tell He was very good in that game though. And I don't deny that I get too excited often.
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@Billy-Tell Not just Ferners but pretty much every commentator.
I haven't read anything - other from Tim that doesn't pretty much say Paps was solid but a step down from Cane.
Tim's campaigning hard to pick up multiple gongs at the end of year awards
