All Blacks v BI Lions Test #3
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Have not read the thread since the game started, not the interested in referee minutiae critique.
But my impression, bearing in mind my second half analysis becomes a bit clouded by booze.
We smashed them first half, and for most of the match. But we didn't capitalise. And they came back at us plenty, but on the whole we had this.
Haven't seen stats.
We learnt plenty tonight.
Well done Lions on an excellent tour, and by God did we need it after Sanzars's post 2015 plummet. Good stuff.
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@Crash said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #3:
@Virgil said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #3:
Shows how much we have missed Ben Smith not too mention Crotty
I'd agree with that. Still can't understand why Crotty was left out if he was running freely
I heard a whisper that Crotty was being saved for the Crusaders mighty run to the Super rugby finals....
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@Tim said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #3:
ALB is having a tough 2nd season. Mediocre this year.
MotM vs Samoa, good last week and has had to deal with different combinations. Didn't see much of him on attack this series but I think his positional play on defence is very good.
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@hydro11 said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #3:
@Tim said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #3:
ALB is having a tough 2nd season. Mediocre this year.
MotM vs Samoa, good last week and has had to deal with different combinations. Didn't see much of him on attack this series but I think his positional play on defence is very good.
What? He's been all at sea in defence at times throughout the series. I think he's had a very mixed bag as most of the backs have had.
Looks to have bulked and not as quick.
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@Siam said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #3:
I'm slowly getting there (medicating)
What a lovely (truly) month we've had in comaraderie and mutual respect (and abusing) the Lions TSFers !!
Pot, Mike, Cato, Simon et al - what a great ride we've had
appreciate your virtual travel and cultural assimilation and supposing the head clears in the morning perhaps...rugby has been the winner
Respect NH chaps - good fluffybunnies, ebven if laboured with supportiung a bunch of yellers
hard bastards though, for sureWell said 👏
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@ACT-Crusader Indeed, his defence has been poor all season. His execution has been lacking, which is not surprising for a young player in their second international season. Opposition has studied him, and he's under more pressure now.
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It would've been great to have had Luatua out there in the last 30 minutes - speed, power, and an effective offloading game. Could've broken up the Lions' defence, which would've been crucial. He was brilliant at that when he played against the Lions.
Steve Hansen wouldn't select him, even though the Lions series is apparently the ultimate in rugby. Arrogant selections cost him last year too - he's the only NZ coach to have lost to Ireland. That sort of hubris and arrogance hasn't been seen since John Mitchell.
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Well, that was pretty exciting and given that I hate losing far more than I like winning, I'm remarkably sanguine about the result.
I think some of you guys are being pretty harsh on the execution. The Lions defence was extremely good - no weak links - and I think the ABs decided they needed some pieces of magic to score. Maybe a lack of patience at times, but the two tries we scored both had a fair degree of magic to them - especially the second one. Taking pop passes into a close defensive line and getting smashed isn't the best way of retaining the ball - but, it's also a good way of breaking the line. On another night we could have scored four or five tries - we certainly created opportunities - especially in the first half.
I haven't really seen a massive decline in Hansen's coaching - we just came up against a team chock full of talented players and with the depth to match and possibly better the advantage we usually get from the subs bench - particularly once we lost a few players.
On the final penalty, I guess Poite will give a Gallic shrug and say something like "Il n’est pas la bonne décision, mais c’est la belle décision."
Which means, "It is not the right decision, but it is the beautiful decision." At least that's what I typed into Babelfish to get that result!
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@Tim c'mon mate, you're bordering on trolling.
We know your love for Blues players, but you may have gone overboard on that assessment of Hansen.Hansens loyalty has to be earned, and Luatua did himself zero favours a couple years back turning up unfit as he did
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Winning the 2015 world cup has made people very soft.
We played like garbage in this series. We lost to Ireland last year, and were lucky that Australia and South Africa were so bad.
If you don't get upset about drawing a three match series at home then there's something wrong with you.
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On the final non-penalty.
I watched that in a bar, with poor sound, assuming it was for obstruction. Then giy in urinal after match is talked by about accidental offside? I deferred to him assuming he could hear the audio ....Yeah, well .,.,, rugby huh
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@Gunner He's contracted to the NZRU so play him. Other players are buggering off and Hansen doesn't take the time to criticise them personally in the media.
The non-selection was arrogant, and the team is performing poorly. You use your best players, you don't pretend you're too good for them and lose at home.
