Sunwolves v Blues
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Heat definitely a factor. Scheduling an issue perhaps but if you're playing in Japan at that time of year, best to play at night. Chichibunomiya does have lighting from memory as once went to watch Suntory play on a Friday night but it seldom seems to get used.
Still the Blues made about 10 errors in the 5 minutes of the game I watched. Woeful.
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@African-Monkey
But not Thee Final! -
@African-Monkey said in Sunwolves v Blues:
Interesting reading this thread having said that. I thought the Blues had done pretty well this season in a very tough NZ conference but 1 shocker at the end of the season seems to have ruined what wasn't a terrible season up until yesterday.
This is true but the Blues have been the worst team in New Zealand for five of the past six seasons. The Highlanders had a shocker that season and the Blues only won six games.
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The other way of looking at it is this is the closest the Blues have been to the other nz teams in a number of years.
In the derbies the Blues drew one, and had 4 very close losses that were all winnable. The only derby they lost convincingly was when Luatua got red carded.
Their issue this year was not the inability to compete with the other nz teams but to close games out.
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Did a massive double take when he saw the result. That is farking shameful.
But despite what is an utterly humiliating loss, the Blues season has at least been ok. Some very closes losses to the other NZ teams and a win against the Lions.
What the Blues really need is a decent 10. I reckon if they had one of Barrett, Cruden or Lima those losses could have been reversed.
Obviously that doesn't excuse the limp dicked loss to the shittiest team in Super history, but I think some forward steps have been made this season. No need to slit wrists just yet.
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@taniwharugby Lets be honest, once your hopeless Northland players came on yesterday the game changed dramatically
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Firstly, Blues were terrible - but I wouldn't take that loss too seriously. The scheduling is a fucking joke to have that game played at 12pm. We didn't go to the game because I as worried about over heating - as a spectator! It's fucking roasting in that stadium and was probably over 40 degrees on the ground. I'm surprised someone didn't get hurt - two years ago a professional soccer player dropped dead at this time of year when playing in that heat.
Overall, I think Tana is making progress - but his selections are going to kill him if he doesn't get it right. I think losing Luatua might be a big blow - Kaino is getting older and they'll really rely on Ioane. Much of their best stuff this season (and last) has come about because of Luatua. It's a fucking shame he's leaving.
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@African-Monkey got infected with the Blues!
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@gt12 said in Sunwolves v Blues:
Overall, I think Tana is making progress - but his selections are going to kill him if he doesn't get it right. I think losing Luatua might be a big blow - Kaino is getting older and they'll really rely on Ioane.
I was pretty surprised that they bothered to fly Kaino over to sit on the bench for that game. Wondered whether it portends an "announcement"?
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Pretty shameful but really, if you aren't acclimatised to the heat any bloody team would struggle. It is tough to move without air conditioning let alone play rugby when Tokyo is like that. The crazy humidity knocks off older grannies and gives numerous people heatstroke.
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@Hooroo said in Sunwolves v Blues:
I can't help but laugh a bit. At least the Chiefs have mostly been shit through history but this Blues team is fucking hopeless.
How does a team in this real estate be so fucking poke for so long?
I blame it on the Space Jam aliens.
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@Samurai-Jack said in Sunwolves v Blues:
Pretty shameful but really, if you aren't acclimatised to the heat any bloody team would struggle. It is tough to move without air conditioning let alone play rugby when Tokyo is like that. The crazy humidity knocks off older grannies and gives numerous people heatstroke.
I really hope the heat was a big part of our sluggish performance, because we were way off, particularly in areas that I deem as strengths of ours, like our tackling and effort. I can deal with the enigmatic attack, because that's normal for us, but these two aspects have held true for us for majority of the season. If the heat was as bad as you said, then maybe it can help explain why we were so poor.
I noticed that we were struggling early in the game, but kind of brushed it off and thought we'd just turn it up later, but yeah... that didn't quite happen.
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@Dice yeah was some phases in the 2nd spell the Blues looked farked alright.
Either way, they will be very down with that finish, after a season where the arc had been rising slowly, peaking a few weeks back, and then crashed back down.
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@taniwharugby Was a solid season overall, but that was the worst possible way to end a season.
I feel for Faumuina and Luatua. Just a terrible way to send them off.
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@Dice said in Sunwolves v Blues:
@taniwharugby Was a solid season overall, but that was the worst possible way to end a season.
I feel for Faumuina and Luatua. Just a terrible way to send them off.
I don't.
They just finished beating the Lions, and then got to go on an extended holiday to Japan to hold an exhibition match. -
@mimic said in Sunwolves v Blues:
@Dice said in Sunwolves v Blues:
@taniwharugby Was a solid season overall, but that was the worst possible way to end a season.
I feel for Faumuina and Luatua. Just a terrible way to send them off.
I don't.
They just finished beating the Lions, and then got to go on an extended holiday to Japan to hold an exhibition match.Martin Devlin was going berserk on Radiosport this morning, because apparently the Blues 12 days of acclimatization wasn't in Japan - it was in Fiji. He reckons it would have cost the Blues $300K.
