Reds v Blues
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@KiwiMurph Thompson stole a crucial lineout in there too. As you said, McWhannell is very good in the collision. We have some good locks at our disposal when it looked like it could have been a problematic area for us over the last year or two.
Was nervous when Nock came on but he did well and kept the tempo up.
Clarke continues to go from strength to strength, how good was he off the bench!
Eklund actually went quite well apart from getting hit by Fa'agase early. Hard to tell who should be in the matchday 23 between him and Vikena, but Eklund was the better one tonight.
Cole Forbes has been a brilliant signing. I didn't know a lot about him, but he's a very well rounded player, does his core roles very well and is very good as a 2nd playmaker and also a good runner of the ball to. There doesn't look like much to him, but he is hard to put down and is very reliable in the air. Scotland should have capped him haha.
Scrum went well , Renata has improved massively under Cotter and Fusitu'a is coming along nicely.
Funaki again, WOW! The guy is everywhere. Am I going over the top in suggesting that he's worth ABs consideration?
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@African-Monkey The way I see it Funaki is competing with Fakatava for the third spot assuming Roigard is out, TJP is first and Christie is an incumbent.
Hopefully Christie's out.
McWhannell must surely be in the squad given his play this year. Safe lineout leader, body mover at rucks. Does core lock roles very well.
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@Duluth I like how Pat Tu'ipulotu didn't even know wh Tim Ryan was haha.
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Sotutu
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@KiwiMurph said in Reds v Blues:
I've never seen a player hit posts and crossbars more than Plummer
13-7
I've never seen a player hit the spot on the crossbar before.
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@African-Monkey said in Reds v Blues:
@Duluth I like how Pat Tu'ipulotu didn't even know wh Tim Ryan was haha.
Weird hearing him swear too. He normally is very formal in front of the press
Cotter made some interesting comments about how good SR is and that’s it’s not promoted well enough.
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Thought we missed Akira’s clean out work. It’s even more important when a ref allows a lot to go.
James Thompson made his debut in the last few minutes with plenty of pressure on. Not complicated but he made the last pass to Caleb before his break.. he must’ve been nervous as the ball was coming to him
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@Duluth said in Reds v Blues:
@African-Monkey said in Reds v Blues:
@Duluth I like how Pat Tu'ipulotu didn't even know wh Tim Ryan was haha.
Weird hearing him swear too. He normally is very formal in front of the press
Cotter made some interesting comments about how good SR is and that’s it’s not promoted well enough.
It is haha, just on a personal level slightly off topic, I went to school with him, he heard me swear once and was shocked as he had never heard me swear before. I've known him since we were 5 year Olds and it's the first time I've heard him swear in his life haha. He's always been a humble, polite person. Random crap story but thought I'd throw it in haha.
Cotter is right, the comp does need better promotion. You do get some very good rugby played, yet hardly anyone cares about it. The gap between the Kiwi and aussie sides is also closing drastically compared to a few years back. The Blues for arguments sake are 8-1 and play great rugby, but people in Auckland would rather watch the 3 from 8 wahs run around and they're one of the most boring sides to watch in the NRL, so yes, better promotion would help.
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@Duluth Yup, Akira was a massive loss. His size and strength in contact is key for how we want to play.
He's an underrated leader too.
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Segner played well but ideally someone like Suafoa should be there when Akira isn’t there.. but that’s not possible right now. Segner is more similar to Dalton and Sotutu
All three loosies played well but the mix was off
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@antipodean said in Reds v Blues:
@African-Monkey The way I see it Funaki is competing with Fakatava for the third spot assuming Roigard is out, TJP is first and Christie is an incumbent.
Hopefully Christie's out.
McWhannell must surely be in the squad given his play this year. Safe lineout leader, body mover at rucks. Does core lock roles very well.
(Roigard), Perenara, Ratima, Funaki.
Christie and Fakatava are not test-standard halfbacks. I'm sick of hearing their names come up in these discussions.
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@Duluth said in Reds v Blues:
James Thompson made his debut in the last few minutes with plenty of pressure on. Not complicated but he made the last pass to Caleb before his break.. he must’ve been nervous as the ball was coming to him
His first involvement was winning the lineout off the Reds throw.
I haven't read the 2nd half comments yet but the losing of that game for Qld was the stupid box kick from the reserve halfback while on attack. They needed to keep the pressure on the Blues by retaining possession. The Reds really miss McReight to provide some pressure at the breakdown. A good game though.
