All Blacks vs Springboks - Twickenham
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Athletic Park to Cake tin was a bit of a jump
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@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks vs Springboks - Twickenham:
@Smuts said in All Blacks vs Springboks - Twickenham:
Best way to blunt our pack is to shift it around by giving the ball heaps of air. Especially if your kick chase is good and we’re as bad under the ball as we were in Albany.
In other words, same blueprint as the first 20 in Albany.
Pendatic alert. Mt Smart was the venue of the earlier game this year. Albany was 2017.
SA may wish revenge for that, too!
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@Smuts I thought the Boks enjoyed spanking each other…….
LIST: Some of rugby's weirdest initiation ceremonies - Page 2 of 4 - Ruck
Forget a warm welcome: joining a new team has often involved heavy drinking, little clothing and a live chicken...
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@booboo when the stats say he's knackered to the extent that his performance is worse than the bloke replacing him - which is reasonably similar across most teams, so yeah. Marx is a pain at the breakdown, and particularly Taylor but also Coles are both quick and competent in that area, so I would see them as a decent counter to Marx. That sort of tactical 'match our starter/bench to counter the opposition' is pretty clearly not Foster's thinking though is it? He's doing it against Australia, and I don't think their reserve hooker warrants a tactical selection to counter him.
The worry is that when we get beaten, it is usually because a rush defence gets on top of us and we can't create go-forward. Samisoni and Frizzell are the two guys who can do something about that in the current pack, so starting neither of them seems to lack balance. At least we now have Jordie Barrett at 12, whereas previously our going-backwards forwards would pass their shit static ball to the lightweight Smith, Mo'unga and Havili - who would go further backwards. -
@reprobate there’s also the mix and balance of the two front rows we select. If for example they persist with Laulala as the bench option then I think we need an active ball carrying front rower (like Sami T) with him.
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In the space of two or three test matches comments have gone from wondering what the hell SF is doing in the ABs to lamenting his absence. Not necessarily the same posters, but I do find it amusing.
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@Crazy-Horse i was one wondering what he was doing in the AB's but can't argue with his change in form this season for the AB's...play well and people will want you to get picked...not rocket surgery
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@Kiwiwomble agree he seems to have played better recently and why nit puck hin, but I do wonder whether it's an aberration. I guess I am sceptical because even in the games he played well he did have longish patches where he 'reverted to type'.
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@Crazy-Horse said in All Blacks vs Springboks - Twickenham:
In the space of two or three test matches comments have gone from wondering what the hell SF is doing in the ABs to lamenting his absence. Not necessarily the same posters, but I do find it amusing.
I think it's hilarious, and arguably it's based on 20 minutes of one of those test matches (and yep, as you said even in that game he reverted to type).
He'll be a dud at the RWC. SB at 6 in the semi in 2019 was a huge mistake, but I think we'll need him there for the crunch games this year.
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@Crazy-Horse and it could be....but i think you cant second guess form because sometimes a player is just riding a wave of confidence, i think you play him until his form drops again
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@Crazy-Horse said in All Blacks vs Springboks - Twickenham:
@Kiwiwomble agree he seems to have played better recently and why nit puck hin, but I do wonder whether it's an aberration. I guess I am sceptical because even in the games he played well he did have longish patches where he 'reverted to type'.
I tend to disagree because he was pretty active during those patches when he wasn’t doing the big run or scoring or finding his hard shoulder.
His activity level is up at ruck time and for me that is the most promising thing - not the really noticeable stuff
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