RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks
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@Rancid-Schnitzel said in RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks:
I haven't been able to post until now so I've had plenty of time to reflect on the game. I would say I went from being apathetic, to a bit excited and even optimistic, and then disappointed and back to apathetic.
That game pretty much defined the Foster era. The odd bit of brilliance, but mostly substandard execution, poor discipline, poor leadership, poor tactics, and zero ability to respond when under the pump. And that's a shame because there is actually so much potential here. If unleashed, that backline could carve the heart out of anyone. But it can't be unleashed without a platform being established by the forwards, and at times they were a complete shambles. Wtf was that pass from Taylor? MynameisGroot looked like a rabbit in headlights. And Vaa'i....good christ.
Mind you, the backs shouldn't be let off the hook. BB started really strongly then went back to kicking like a total bitch. ALB was farking Anton the anonymous, and Jordan was the definition of a headless chicken. He perhaps demonstrated why he shouldn't be the starting fullback. The less said of the Ginga the better.
Positives? Well I don't like him at 13 but Ioane was really good. Him and Talea were always dangerous despite not having not much to work with. Ardie was Ardie, and SB didn't get sent off. I also though Dalton P was very solid. And of course A Smith did the job. Cane and Jordie will be coming back and while I don't worship at the alter of Frizzell or Blackadder, both are preferable to poor Vaa'i.
While this team isn't a patch on McCaw and Co I really don't think we have a cattle problem. We have the players to win this thing. But I don't think we have the structure or, most importantly, the leadership to win. World Cup winners still win even when they're having an off day. When this team has an off day they get thumped and unfortunately that's more often than not.
100%
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I'm sure it's been posted about a lot, but so many times when an NZ ball carrier made an extra metre or more, the cleanout was really late or non-existent. Gave France so much time over the ball. Apparently in the second half, France earned many times the turnovers we did.
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@Tim was obvious how poor we were in that regard, the Welsh and especially the Fijians were both light years better than us. We are slow as hell to get into the ruck and we don't commit enough numbers. We've gone from being unable to defend, committing more to the ruck, to committing less to the ruck and being too slow to get there. It's just crap all round. The biggest improvement in the RC was in the defense but it didn't show up our ruck as we weren't put under any real pressure in those games. The NH sides are going to rip us a new one and yeah I reckon we could lose to Italy unless they do something rapido to fix it. The work rate from our pack is awful and what do we expect when we have geriatrics at 4 & 5 who should have been put to pasture in 2019. There's no quick fix for this, that bird has flown.
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@Tim said in RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks:
de Groot gave away back to back scrum penalties, then dropped the ball in great position with a really weak carry. ABs should have been up by 15 to 6 after 30 minutes with a regular quality loosehead prop.
Don't disagree but we had France fecked but instead went for 3. Should have gone for the try. Really should have scored before the penalty was awarded. In the end the 3 didn't mean jack. Had they scored 7, I think it would have been a different ball game. Of course, I have no real basis for this because this is this is a 40min team. Of the 6 tests this year, the ABs have lost the second half in 4 and could easily have lost one more.
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If you replace de Groot, Taylor, and Vaa'i from that starting XV, then we go into half time with a healthy lead. Kicking game in that half was our best in years. Good length on kicks. Pity they kept putting up high balls for Jordan when he was off his game.
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Smith had a great first half, but looked really tired in the second. His kicking game was exposed. Newell missed two tackles in the lead up to France's first try. Those Ryan Crusaders selections are appalling.
Rightfully, there was almost universal condemnation of the all Crusaders AB XV selections last year - Ryan has really been shown up with his bias.
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@stodders said in RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks:
@Tim French were putting their hands on the ground a fair bit at rucks before attacking the ball, but it wasn’t being policed. See the ruck after Jordan’s bust at the beginning of the 2nd half. Two French players both do it.
AKA the Marx manouvre. Now it's been pointed out he seems to have stopped trying to jackal.
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@Tim said in RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks:
Newell's been on the field for at least 20 minutes, and he hasn't a single significant touch on the ball, defensive play, or ruck action. If you think my criticism of Ryan is over the top, then consider this horribly biased selection.
Hasn't had much rugby this year.
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@Joans-Town-Jones said in RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks:
@Chris-B said in RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks:
@TheMojoman said in RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks:
@Windows97 said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
@nostrildamus said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
This is such an uplifting thread.
Poster A: The current ABs are crap.
Poster B: You forget, they have been crap before.Well the positives are...
- The game-plan worked for 40 minutes
- We have a lot of injured players to come back into the team - who will make a difference.
- We beat a lot a defenders and created opportunities (didn't capitalize on them unfortunately).
There are positives we can work on but man, two games in a row where our forward pack sort of disappeared. I am certain we can recover and beat Boks/Ireland in the qtrs but I'm not so confident we can win 3 big games in a row.
I'm going to (perhaps wishfully) give Fozzie a bit of credit for taking a professional approach to this RWC.
He let very few of his ABs play any significant time in the NPC. Most of our guys hadn't played any proper rugby for three or four weeks prior to the Jaapie game - and we looked it.
We looked better vs France, but still a fair way off the pace. Well short of the sort of physical effort we put in vs SA in the Rugby Championship.
Losing to France is a bit like losing to one of the top teams in Round 8 of Super Rugby - it's not going to have much bearing on outcomes five weeks hence.
We have to win three hard games - I reckon the stats suggest (and unfortunately for Fozzie's redemption) that each of NZ, Ireland, SA and France has about a 20% chance of winning the whole thing - with the remaining 20% shared between the rest.
I doubt anything significant has changed as a result of the France game. Pretty sure Fozzie had it on his list of "nice to have's", but he won't be losing sleep over that.
So lets say this is true, this is what ABs rugby has sunk to. Losing is ok as long as we win the big one. In less than four years NZRU and the rugby public have allowed this to sink into the fabric of ABs rugby. And probably the worst of all, other than Justin Marshall, no former ABs have come out expressed their hurt at Foster's reign. We're going to lose tests from time to time but the frequency, the manner, the opposition we lose to is just unacceptable. I'll ask again, at what point over the last 4 years has Foster given us any confidence at all the ABs will get passed the QF. Hell, I'd even question we'd get passed Wales or Fiji at this point.
Let's not forget we won the RC this year, so we have it in us. But the margins are so thin that when we can't field our top team we struggle to play well
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@DaGrubster Yep mate, couldn't agree more about Jacobson, I just couldn't understand why Vai'i jumped him as starting 6. I make no bones I have been I have tended to be a huge fan of Ryan as forward coach, but wonder with how pack is going. I know I am a Finau fan, but not sure he would of been answer anyway, he tends to be a great runner with ball , but wider out, and someone like Frizzel carries hard around contact area. I really believe it's w Blackadder is there now, he is more a dirty work player you need in test matches. While not comparing players as being in same class, I always thought the strength of a Richie McCaw , Kaino etc was their work in the dark places. Richie if he didn't win a breakdown (and he missed plenty as all 7s do) he would slow down the ball opposition got, with a niggly just put hand on ball for a second. What Papali'i needs to learn, and I think we missed Cane who does it.
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