France v All Blacks
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Ended the season with a lot more question marks than the start of it. Worrying to see the AB forward pack outplayed from the 3rd Bledisloe. Next year will be fascinating but definitely think there isn't much of a gap if any between this team and the English.
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@ACT-Crusader said in France:
I'm glad the season is over so I don't have to read some of your whinging any more. And yes I'm whinging about your whinging....
> Up by 8 and not going for the kick - who cares. France didn't look likely in that last 15.
Too many penalties - did it really matter? No. France were turning their ball over anyway.
Too many chip kicks - watch what France were doing defensively and it was an excellent tactic. Just didn't execute it on every occasion.
I didn't mind the test. It was a decent contest. The ABs were put under pressure and some of our defence was superb. But equally some of the attack from France was good.
Well done ABs on a very successful season.
That was just fucking stupid no matter what and I think we've had an awesome season.
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@ACT-Crusader BBBR had a calf strain, according to Hansen.
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@ACT-Crusader Didn't think so, but impossible to tell from Paddy comms. Thought SB was good. Whitelock really seemed to stand up in second half. Saw a bit of Oz-Irish. Must say we could do with a limpet like 7 such as Pocok -- we just don't seem to challenge for turnovers at the mo. Leads to making masses of tackles.
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@ACT-Crusader BBBR had a calf strain, according to Hansen.
Really, that's no good.
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@Stargazer said in France:
@Stargazer said in France:
I really respect Kaino, but I think they need to find a long-term replacement asap. He looks like he's falling apart. I'd rather see guys like him retire before they break down completely. And they need to try more guys than Dixon and Squire.
Kaino has had a pretty good season, better than Read's through the SH tests, he hasn't had a great EOYT though but we don't know if that was due to his injury or if he hit a wall.
We'll find out next Super season I guess.
I was just going to say that I also don't completely agree with the criticism of Read. He's been playing with an injury that requires surgery. We just don't know how much that's affecting his game. We won't see him in the first part of the SR season ..
Feel like he's run himself to a standstill, didn't he play full SR season too? Missing beginning of next SR season probably beneficial ( from AB pov).
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With the crack down on high(ish) tackles, and increasing likelihood that a tackle that slips up, or when the player falls into it will lead to a YC/RC, should we be adapting our defensive style?
The dominant tackle that drives the player back is less easy to execute if you are making a real effort to tackle lower - say the waist area versus chest. The waist tackle will also allow more offloads. So do we start tackling lower, looking to put the ball carrier on the ground and re-employ a fetcher?
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Plenty of work-ons. I also think Shag and co may have been holding something in reserve for the Lions tour next year, We don't want the NH to see everything in our play book. I noticed we did something similar before the WC. We altered our style slightly - just to keep the rest of the rugby world guessing. We have to keep evolving. Set a new benchmarks and standards.
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@Stargazer said in France:
@Stargazer said in France:
I really respect Kaino, but I think they need to find a long-term replacement asap. He looks like he's falling apart. I'd rather see guys like him retire before they break down completely. And they need to try more guys than Dixon and Squire.
Kaino has had a pretty good season, better than Read's through the SH tests, he hasn't had a great EOYT though but we don't know if that was due to his injury or if he hit a wall.
We'll find out next Super season I guess.
I was just going to say that I also don't completely agree with the criticism of Read. He's been playing with an injury that requires surgery. We just don't know how much that's affecting his game. We won't see him in the first part of the SR season ..
Colour me surprised my Magpies buddy, you're coming to the defence of the Crusaders captain ;).
I don't think Read has been too far off the pace this year.
@Mokey I think he's taking time to settle himself into the captaincy like McCaw did initially. He's a bit softly softly at the moment but it will come - only Tana seemed to have it straight out of the gate.
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So do smilies/emojis not work anymore? Also, I can't edit as well. [Edit: I can edit].
@Stargazer There was a wink after captain on that previous post. [Edit: And now it's there ... I'm officially having a fucken mare. I should go back to bed.]
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ASmith seems to have left his form back in that Christchurch toilet, he needs to stop throwing his arms up to attract the refs attention and pay attention to what is going on around him instead. He threw a shitty pass along the ground and almost cost us when he didn't catch on to the Frenchie who fly-hacked that ball out of the ruck. Lucky our scrambling defence was up to it for most of the match.
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@mariner4life said in France:
I think Barnes has been excellent
If by "excellent" you mean "hasn't had an absolute howler but is still not getting as much right as he should and is kind of inconsistent sometimes but not too bad on the whole and certainly better than Peyper last week" then yes.
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@Stargazer said in France:
I really respect Kaino, but I think they need to find a long-term replacement asap. He looks like he's falling apart. I'd rather see guys like him retire before they break down completely. And they need to try more guys than Dixon and Squire.
I'd like to see Luatua there
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@Billy-Tell said in France:
Thought Barnes was fine myself one of his better tests.
Damned with faint praise
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@ACT-Crusader Didn't think so, but impossible to tell from Paddy comms. Thought SB was good. Whitelock really seemed to stand up in second half. Saw a bit of Oz-Irish. Must say we could do with a limpet like 7 such as Pocok -- we just don't seem to challenge for turnovers at the mo. Leads to making masses of tackles.
First three attacjs by France we had three t/os. First Todd, not sure second, Sam third.
