Bledisloe 3
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@taniwharugby said in BLEDISLOE 3:
was that the first time they have run Cane 80?
Poor bastard was out on his feet, game stats say Cane made 27 tackles.
Interestingly the highest wallaby was Mcmahon with 11.
Squire & Whitelock made second most tackles with 15.
Some shocking defensive stats were Crotty made 3 tackles, missed 4 and turned it over twice. And not much better attacking wise with 2 runs for 12m.
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@chimoaus especially as many of his tackles were hard hits too.
Yeah Crotty was surprisingly poor last night, normally so consistent, did ALB even get on the field?
Back to back games we have thrown an intercept early on to give the Aussies the lead.
Cant recall who it was moaning about Smith taking a quick tap behind and off to the side of the mark a few weeks back, but WTF was up with Barnes letting Genia take one in front of the mark and his eyes?
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@taniwharugby said in BLEDISLOE 3:
@chimoaus especially as many of his tackles were hard hits too.
Yeah Crotty was surprisingly poor last night, normally so consistent, did ALB even get on the field?
Back to back games we have thrown an intercept early on to give the Aussies the lead.
Yes, he replaced Crotty in the 70th minute.
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@chimoaus
Probably a toss-up between Squire & Kaino
Our entire midfield group has a question mark over it, could Crotty/Goodhue be the answer (worked for the Crusaders)
Back three, Ioane/B.Smith/??? Could Havili be the new Dagg on the wing? not sure if NMS really set anything on fire this year.A backline bench of TJP (maybe) SBW DMac has some spunk about it.
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After the World Cup we had something of a golden run which I guess was a bit of a surprise with all the players that had moved on ,
It's almost like the delayed hangover has hit 12 months later , injuries , form issues etc have made us look a bit more vulnerable,The rest of the rugby world will take heart from it , more stories will appear , we aren't the force we used to be , aura should make an appearance again etc etc
But I personally still think we are in a great position if we look forward to 2019 , when it comes to raw talent , it's still there ,
But the coaching and planning could be the crucial part moulding and putting it all together .
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We the game was supposed to be played at 3am PST so I got up and it was half time. Not sure what happened. Agreed the backs looked like they were coached by Blackadder but the Aussies had good line speed and we did not adapt. The game has to be won in the forwards and it was even or perhaps they had the better of us. Get Akira into the mix. He adds X factor and in the right environment he will excel. And SammyC give the Todd thing a rest. He is not going to be the player to take us through the next WC. Jettison him now as well as Savea. We need to start building a more dynamic pack.
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@kiwiinmelb great analogy. We woke up the morning after 2015 still drunk and we've been doing everythong we can to stop the hangover from coming. I think we've managed to limit it as best we can, and moving forward we have a great base of players to build from.
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@broughie said in BLEDISLOE 3:
And SammyC give the Todd thing a rest. He is not going to be the player to take us through the next WC. Jettison him now as well as Savea. We need to start building a more dynamic pack.
What Todd thing?
Have I even mentioned him lately?
Cane was awesome... the abs best player last night
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@gunner Great post. I felt that in the 2nd half in particular we needed to go back to the tactics employed against the BIL in that first test. Had to take the pressure off Lima who is frankly not an International 10 imo. We had to play off 9 like we did that day given the conditions, the rush defence and our non performing 10. Hope they get a lot of learnings from this game. We have looked vulnerable all year when teams match or dominate us in the physical exchanges and employ a fast defensive line.
One thing it does prove though, our depth may not be as great as people make it out to be.
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At half time I remember thinking "this'll be a good replay game tomorrow morning"
We were smashing them in tackles, making all the play, got a beaut try with patience and skill (those passes into traffic between the forwards). Aussies were good but we were giving the wee upstarts a bit of a whacking
Second half means I'll never watch this again
Our boys were buggered in that 2nd spell.
No go forward, no advantage line, no injection of energyAussies were committed and playing for sheep stations and deserved their win and exuberant celebrations afterwards
Never known Whitelock to be so anonymous - he's gotta be knackered
they've all got to be tired after all the super derbies, Lions, and smashing the championship
Conversely Aussies had everything to play for (their whole season actually, in a dead rubber, which is a great inferred compliment to the ABs) and they stuck at it
This is a classic example of flush the dunny (and keep that poxy attacking scrum intercept move as a stain reminder not to get too clever) and concede an insipid performance in a dead rubber at the end of a pretty successful season (a grand season but for two referee interventions/intepretations).
No real need for all the baby and bath water or the sudden revelations that Hansen has been "bloody average since 2015", but then social media bleating when things don't go your way is all the rage these days
Rather lose this one than one up north
Observations:
Didn't Cane (who is a warrior) get knocked pretty much out in the second spell with a bit of a Lonergan?
Has damien got enough game for this level? Not so much what he did do but what he didn't seemcapable of doing - provide an attacking, space creating threat when we needed it. Not sure he's got it for this team.
Blokes holding on to legs, rucks forming and still the fluffybunnies let them get up or wriggle forward - Fix this shit now!
Hope the Aussie ferners are pleased with their team last night
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@siam said in BLEDISLOE 3:
Our boys were buggered in that 2nd spell.
No go forward, no advantage line, no injection of energyPosted in that thread about our game style that: I don't think our long-fabled fitness is all its cracked up to me, I recall reading an article about the AB's where Nick Gill said the gains they make year on year, got the AB's to a point where they were almost super-human.
Because we've so many 1st or 2nd year players now, its unrealistic to think we have that same level of fitness.
Its not unrealistic to think Coles, Whitelock, Retallick, Read, Cane, A.Smith, Beaudy, Crotty, Ben Smith, Dagg typically look like our best, because they have the conditioning. -
@siam Whitelock does look tired and Razor has to take some of the blame for that. He didn't manage him at all well this year. I was critical of him when he played Whitelock against the Sunwolves knowing that there were sill many hard games ahead. Could have rested him against some of the other weaker teams as well. It's only going to get worse next year with the increase in the number of NZ derbies, our players will be playing more high intensity games than they currently are.
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@siam I'd be very surprised if Cane was knocked out and didnt go off, he has taken himself off twice this season, once staying off even after he passed the HIA.
Gatland employed the rush defence to neutralise our advantage, other teams are now getting better at it and have used this to good effect and we have failed to adjust when teams use it effectively on us.
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@taniwharugby said in BLEDISLOE 3:
@siam I'd be very surprised if Cane was knocked out and didnt go off, he has taken himself off twice this season, once staying off even after he passed the HIA.
Gatland employed the rush defence to neutralise our advantage, other teams are now getting better at it and have used this to good effect and we have failed to adjust when teams use it effectively on us.
I saw the same incident that Siam did, although, maybe the look on Cane's face was just the pissed off look of someone working hard while his workmates seemed to be going through the motions.
We could do with a 2012-14 era Cruden as his playing to the line style would create space for others with the rush defence.
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