Blues v Force
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What is with NZ rugby writers and their weird obsession with Pulu?
Halfback Augustine Pulu was again one of the Blues' best players
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11830138
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The Blues made hard work of that one.
A and R Ioane both good off the bench. Akira had his best game of the season.
Duffy good again. Happy to be proven wrong about him.
Liking Nanai's play too. Has very good hands . Two weeks in a row he has taken passes one handed well behind him.From one of the few positives last year the backrow has gone backwards. Not seeing the reason for starting Tupou and Taramai. When is Luatua back?
Pulu again fucking around at the base. Absolutely no reason to slow the play down and let the defence get set. It just puts pressure on the guy you then pass to.
Guyton. How the fuck does he have a super rugby contract?
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@Bones said in Blues v Force:
Pulu's passing was shit for a large part of the match tonight but other than that he was good and has been the blues best in most games this year. Probably his worst game this year but still not awful.
He's killing our momentum with his huge delay at ruck time. Then half his passes this afternoon were terrible.
His form has dropped off a lot.
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@taniwharugby said in Blues v Force:
Gotta say Duffie looks the goods this year
He looked an exceptional talent when he started his nrl career ,
Then a horrific run of injuries , 2 knee and 2 shoulder reconstructions , seemed to end all that.
Was a schoolboy athletic champion , I think the knee injuries have taken his pace away , but it's a credit to him the way he has come back .
I have to be honest , I thought he was finished and thought they were stupid for recruiting him initially . -
Sfunny.
Two weeks ago all and sundry (self included) were screaming for Collins and Duffie to be dropped - coaches favourites - now they're delivering and looking good.
Hoping for similar turnaround with Tupou...
... but surely there are better options. Ioane & Luatua being two.
Pulu ... jeez how many stray passes?
Can I also say that it appered obvious that the Farce's game plan consisted of offending (and getting away with it for the most part - should have been a few more yellows dished out) and slowing the play as much as possible. Some really cynical stuff at times. And somebody should have reminded Two Strings where the offside line was.
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@booboo said in Blues v Force:
Sfunny.
Two weeks ago all and sundry (self included) were screaming for Collins and Duffie to be dropped - coaches favourites - now they're delivering and looking good.
Hoping for similar turnaround with Tupou...
... but surely there are better options. Ioane & Luatua being two.
Pulu ... jeez how many stray passes?
Can I also say that it appered obvious that the Farce's game plan consisted of offending (and getting away with it for the most part - should have been a few more yellows dished out) and slowing the play as much as possible. Some really cynical stuff at times. And somebody should have reminded Two Strings where the offside line was.
People were calling for Collins to go, don't remember much about Duffie.
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Yeah I don't recall large numbers of posters calling for Duffie to be dropped. Duffie has been in good form since the NPC.
Unfortunately the way the contracts are structured any league converts are probably going to get thrown straight into SR.
It's a shame Duffie had to relearn the game again at that level rather than NPC.After a crappy start Collins has played ok the last couple of weeks and he scored a good try last night. However, he still isn't as good as Nanai was last year.
I think the concern over him is over what happens when SBW is available. When he's back one of Moala, R Ioane, Nanai, Duffie or Collins gets dropped. Based on the coaches preferences Collins seems locked in so a consistent contributor (which Collins has not been) is going to get shafted. I'm guessing Nanai. -
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@Tim said in Blues v Force:
The problem with Collins is that he offers no counter-attacking threat. That makes it too easy for the defence.
The way he's been linking up with players the last few weeks shows that he's a midfielder playing fullback.
Even less room for him there.
I'd have Nanai at fullback, keep Duffie on one wing, SBW at 12 and Moala and Rieko interchange the other two spots.
Would play Rieko on the wing to develop his game for the ABs actually, and he can roam a bit more.
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Saw a replay of the game.
Akira was the good story for the Blues - came on at 6 and got stuck in. Playing much more to his potential. I think next week start him at 6, Gibson at 7 and Kaino at 8, bring Luatua off the bench.
Agree Pulu's passing in general was off, along with others. They couldnt get a flow on until towards the end, the stop start didnt suit the Blues.
Was good to see Scrafton get a run -- agreed on comments that he has bulked up - he went well. Duffie was excellent, Rieko and Ihaia impactful and generally the defence and discipline wasnt too bad.
Will need to be much better next week vs the Highlanders but they can cause problems.
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Akira was great on both sides of the ball. I tend to think he plays his best rugby when he's our main ball carrier - he gets more of a rhythm into his game that way and other parts of his game seem to feed off it. It'd be nice if he was rewarded with a start next week, but then I loved Luatua's play before the suspension. I'd be happy with either starting to be honest.
I wonder where Parsons gets the confidence to turn down easy 3s to instead kick for touch and go for lineout drives, because for us, it's such a low percentage play, because we are so bad in that area of the game. When the lineout drive gets sacked or halts, we lose the ball somehow in the phases after. IIRC, each time we've turned down a shot at the sticks this year, we've come back with nothing, except on the Akira try on the weekend. Against the Bulls, I could understand the 2nd turn down of 3, because we were going for a bonus point, but even then, we lost the ball at the lineout and got lucky that Kaino smashed that guy back inside the try line to get us a scrum.
Faiane didn't get to show much on attack since the ball was slow and messy when he was on, but watching at the ground and then at home, I thought he was top notch on defense. He made some very good reads and tackles, and covered a lot of ground. He was directing and talking a lot out there too. I was a little worried the double ACL injury would hamper his speed and potential, but seeing him scoot on that disallowed try put my mind at ease.
