Blues v Hurricanes
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@SammyC easily Parsons best game of the year (which isnt really a high bar - but this game was getting close to his best) although thought he didnt ;lead the team too well.
Scrafton and Cowley-Tuioti have surely pushed Tupou out of the starting 15, Goodhue put in a decent 15 or so minutes, but probably not enough to push him from the bench too.
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@taniwharugby id rather have Goodhue on the bench than Tupou - Blues are much better off giving Goodhue gametime.
@infidel I thought Kaino had a strong game - he ran back strong off the kickoffs and made a lot of tackles. I thought he outplayed Shields (who himself is having a top season).
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@KiwiMurph said in Blues v Hurricanes:
@taniwharugby id rather have Goodhue on the bench than Tupou - Blues are much better off giving Goodhue gametime.
@infidel I thought Kaino had a strong game - he ran back strong off the kickoffs and made a lot of tackles. I thought he outplayed Shields (who himself is having a top season).
Agree, not sure where @infidel is coming from with this one. Kaino seemed to be really busy.
Scrafton and Cowley-Tuioti were great.
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Ferald reports "massive brawl" at Eden Park, stating that a fight between two fans escalated into a wider melee. Which is odd as I thought I would have noticed that.
Further down the page their source is quoted as saying a fight broke out between two fans, loads of people stepped in to break it up, and it was over pretty quickly.
Massive brawl... wider melee... nice one Ferald.
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@KiwiMurph yeah definitely think he needs game time, and also reckon he will thrive from it, this is a kid who turned down NPC and Super contracts because he didnt feel he was ready.
How far away is Nock, seems made of glass, bit of a worry for such a young fella
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been thinking about BB ,
And I think what makes him so special ,is not necessarily that he is better , jury still out there ,
but more how different he is to previous 10s , has the most dynamic fastest player on the field at international level had 10 on his back before ?
Just like Zinny revolutionized the 8 position, Cully at FB, Jonah on the wing etc
We could be witnessing something similar and special with Beauden as a five eighth , he is like nothing that has come before
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@kiwiinmelb said in Blues v Hurricanes:
been thinking about BB ,
And I think what makes him so special ,is not necessarily that he is better , jury still out there ,
but more how different he is to previous 10s , has the most dynamic fastest player on the field at international level had 10 on his back before ?
Just like Zinny revolutionized the 8 position, Cully at FB, Jonah on the wing etc
We could be witnessing something similar and special with Beauden as a five eighth , he is like nothing that has come before
But unless you have his speed, you can't play like him. [edit] Jonah didn't particularly revolutionise wing play -- how do the current wingers differ from those before Jonah? [/edit]
What should change is how BB is marked. Most teams these days only allow the outside channel and drift across on defence -- which is how BB must not be marked. He needs to be forced back in every time. The Chiefs didn't give him outside space, and kept him quiet, except when they kicked deep to him without a decent chase, whereupon he (and Jordy) carved them up on counter-attack.
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@Chester-Draws thing is, you can only mark him so far, those weaving runs last night, the chip behind the defence, even if you are up in his face, he still manages it, and then the fact you are focussing on him (ala everyone on Jonah allowing the equally but differently dangerous Goldie & Cully extra time and space) you are going to leave a half gap for someone else to exploit
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The Chiefs also had the benefit of torrential rain to help keep him quiet. On a dry pitch he's very difficult to contain without leaving space out wide.
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@taniwharugby You can't really completely hold down great players, but you can minimise them.
With BB it's much worse if you allow him the outside gap because you risk letting him clear through in space. Using a game plan of pushing in is still using the same amount of men to mark him -- I don't think double marking him is particularly helpful at all.
I'm not convinced the rain had anything to do with Barrett being quiet in Hamilton. The rain doesn't stop him running, and the field was firm. Usually in the rain you will kick more, so he'd get the ball more in space when he dropped back (and that is what happened at the start of the second half when the Chiefs forgot the game plan for a while).
Given that Barrett was the difference between the two sides last night, a plan aimed at minimising his effectiveness would seem wise. Just going on doing the same things and hoping things will change seems a trifle unwise.
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@Chester-Draws wingers before Jonah were generally much smaller quick blokes .
You could argue Kirwan , then inga were first I guess.
But Jonah was the first real beast I can think of -
@Chester-Draws said in Blues v Hurricanes:
@taniwharugby You can't really completely hold down great players, but you can minimise them.
With BB it's much worse if you allow him the outside gap because you risk letting him clear through in space. Using a game plan of pushing in is still using the same amount of men to mark him -- I don't think double marking him is particularly helpful at all.
I'm not convinced the rain had anything to do with Barrett being quiet in Hamilton. The rain doesn't stop him running, and the field was firm. Usually in the rain you will kick more, so he'd get the ball more in space when he dropped back (and that is what happened at the start of the second half when the Chiefs forgot the game plan for a while).
Given that Barrett was the difference between the two sides last night, a plan aimed at minimising his effectiveness would seem wise. Just going on doing the same things and hoping things will change seems a trifle unwise.
That might of worked for one of his breaks last night, but he also pounced on a loose ball from a lineout, chip kicked us, and ran it back from deep several times.
He was a bloody nightmare.
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@kiwiinmelb said in Blues v Hurricanes:
You could argue Kirwan , then inga were first I guess.
But Jonah was the first real beast I can think ofBG was a bit of a beast but it's all relative if he was compared to Terry Wright for example.
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The thing with BB is that he is a ridiculous combination of qualities that most 10s have some but not all of. For starters he's a big strong bugger, certainly bigger than most 10s. But not only that he has the pace to skin most wingers. And that's even before you factor in the insane skill set, i.e his awareness, passing, kicking game (particularly the chip), etc etc. We're now seeing the sum of all those parts and the result is pretty amazing. Pity his goal kicking is dodgy, but hopefully that was a glitch.
What is great to see is how he's now coming into his own and putting all the knockers in their place. And there were plenty of them even during last season. But us long suffering Canes fans knew better
