Bledisloe 3
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@westcoastie Perenara's kicking at the end was poor.
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@hydro11 said in BLEDISLOE 3:
@westcoastie said in BLEDISLOE 3:
@gt12 agreed that our 2015 vintage is better than this squad, this 2017 vintage is more like the 2008-9-10 era, we lost depth after 2007.
DC was starting to make his mark, just as Beauden is.
Nonu & Snake were a new midfield really, and we're not really sure our best combo (I still think Crotty/ALB over SBW/Crotty)
2017 locks are world class, front row much a muchness.I think our players now are as good as they used to be. Before 2015 we played a solid style of rugby and won a lot of games in the last 20 minutes. In these days we had Cane and Barrett coming off the bench. Now those guys are starters and we haven't been able to get similar impact from their replacements. Our combinations are not as settled (as you say) but the other thing we have lost is leadership around the field which we missed in the second half. That isn't necessarily a slight on Read but it was obvious 10 minutes into that half that the Aussies were successful in keeping the ball and moving forward. We just continued to do nothing about it for 15 minutes.
There were plenty of bad performances from the 2012-15 vintage as well though.
Yeah, I think this is a pertinent point, we always had good impact from the bench - Charlie F, Cane etc coming on could up the tempo in defence and around the rucks and BB could carve weakened teams up.
However, I think we're in a plan to build depth now that might pay of in 2019. We should still be winning though.
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@akan004 said in BLEDISLOE 3:
Not surprising to see Crotty hardly being criticised here. He was awful tonight. DMac, Crotty, Offa, Squire and Lima were really disappointing.
Crotty was ineffectual but he gets a pass because he didn't do any obviously dumb things.
That was the sort of performance Offa used to put in before he was good. The hits seemed more important than the rest of his game.
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@nepia said in BLEDISLOE 3:
@akan004 Did DMac do that much wrong tonight? I don't remember any howlers (but I may be wrong)?
The odd poor kick. I thought he went okay when he played at first five though. The Aussies shut him down very well on the kick chase. I don't like D Mac returning the ball too much. He is a great attacking player and can often find a gap. However, a bigger fullback can often be effective on a kick return even if they don't find a gap.
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I almost wonder if it better to start Codie Taylor and bring Coles from the bench (he hasn't quite been the 2016 version Coles has he?)
Props are ok, Locks ok (when Retallick and Whitelock are available to start - don't even recall seeing Tuipolutu)
Savea? mmm - no impact
I would've preferred Kerr-Barlow tonight over TJP, I think we have Smith, then we're really looking for our #2 & #3 halfbacks, TJP is leaving the door open for someone else to step up.
Havili & ALB? geez - I've thought all along SBW should be our bench manAustralia played well, but to be honest, we were pretty scratchy. Just missing a few too many key guys eh?
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@akan004 I just don't think our midfield offers enough in attack to be considered an international threat. Sure there was a bit of starch on D, but equally there needs to be balance. We could do with some of those blockbusting runs from Laumape - he hits the line hard with pace and is difficult to stop when he gets going.
What we don't need is the bumbling and fumbling we saw tonight. -
Another fascinating watch.
Well done Australia. Many teams would have had a bad season or two after that first Bledisloe loss.
Autumn Internationals are going to be very interesting.
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@tim he made some big & crunching tackles tonight.
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@westcoastie a good first five challenging the line in traffic with pace or good running lines ( Barrett or Cruden ) makes difference
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I don't know how people can say Crotty was awful. Sure, he didn't shine, but he didn't do so much wrong either. Not more than many other players, anyway. A lot of players were invisible, Crotty, but also the frontrow, Squire has been mentioned, Dmac. I'm mostly disappointed by Sopoaga, because I expected more of him. Read, Cane, Barrett, Ioane, Naholo and SBW were among the better players; I liked the spark TJP brought when he came on.
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