AB's v Wales
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@antipodean said in AB's v Wales:
Wayne Barnes has absolutely no idea what's going on at rucks. I don't know why I'm being specific. He's a dreadful referee.
Also; how is Ofa an All Black? Seriously.
Because we have really weak depth in certain positions, tighthead being one of them. Loosehead is even worse.
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@family-man said in AB's v Wales:
@antipodean ofa has done a great job this year and deserves his place
I agree with Leyton. Thought Ofa did really well. Part of the dominant 7 man scrum and apart from one tackle where he got knocked backwards (did we score subsequently?) Was good around the park. Lifting must have been ok as we went ok at lineout time.
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@tim started well with some thumping hits but faded badly in the first half, and couldn't hack the pace. Definitely a bench only player at this stage, doesnt have the tank to start.
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@mariner4life It was strange that he wasn't used much as a ball carrier. Neither was Squire.
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@tim said in AB's v Wales:
@mariner4life It was strange that he wasn't used much as a ball carrier. Neither was Squire.
When he was on we had no ball to carry
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@antipodean said in AB's v Wales:
You can have scrummaging - he's improved immensely in that area.
I wouldn't say immensely. You have to remember that when he first came on to the scene, he was playing LH because Charlie was playing TH. For the Blues, whenever Ofa moved to TH he was always solid. He just looks good in the scrums for the ABs because he is now playing TH instead of LH.
His ball carrying is fine (although sometimes he runs it too upright sometimes), especially when you compare him to Owen, but he's definitely no Charlie with the silky skills of a back.
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@mariner4life said in AB's v Wales:
@tim started well with some thumping hits but faded badly in the first half, and couldn't hack the pace. Definitely a bench only player at this stage, doesnt have the tank to start.
It was one of my concerns after the team was named. He’s shown to be a very effective 15-20 minute guy at the end of a match.
In saying that I thought Scott Barrett was very busy and provided a bit of spark.
Did Laulala get injured? Was a little surprised at how early they brought on Tu’ungafasi.
Does feel good that the ABs went through the tour undefeated even though there were some scratchy performances.
Now where’s those last two Aussie threads....
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@kiwiinmelb said in AB's v Wales:
@chester-draws said in AB's v Wales:
Since when do we need fullbacks to make dominant tackles?
Compared to Dagg, McKenzie is a tackling genius.
Never really given it much thought , but I would probably agree with that ,
Mckenzie despite his faults is a good defender , copy book tackles around the legs .
He made one, round the legs, front-on tackle on a Taff front-rower which killed the Welsh attack stone-dead.
Think he needs to sort out his decison-making when he get the ball on defence - too much headless-chicken, cross-field running. That said, he's done OK this year filling in for Bender & Izzy.
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@stargazer It seems Read is suffering from sciatica. With luck, rest and right exercises will ease disc back into place: fingers crossed!
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@akan004 said in AB's v Wales:
Because we have really weak depth in certain positions, tighthead being one of them. Loosehead is even worse.
Ofa is currently no. 3 in the starting TH rankings, which doesn't seem to me like a lack of depth! Seems to have been less effective in loose off bench in recent games. That applies to AB bench in general, though.
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@bovidae said in AB's v Wales:
There are still some question marks over Tuipulotu's scrummaging as well. He's easily the worst of the 5 locks despite his bulk.
It's interesting to look at which locks pack on tighthead side. The pecking order is Romero/BBBR/Whitelock/Barrett/Pat T. Sam is superb at LH lock, but fairly average at TH. Pat T is a power unit and ought to be at least third in the scrummaging pecking order, so expected to pack at TH yesterday. he was good there for NZ XV. Maybe being at Blues is part of problem. It has to be said that Saders and Chiefs have a near monopoly on NZ's best scrummaging tighties.
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I was going to expand on my post about that. BBBR packs on the TH side when he and Whitelock play together but Whitelock moves to the TH side when playing with Barrett, and did with Tuipulotu. I'm not too sure how many times BBBR and Romano have played together but Retallick can switch between either with ease.
Tuipulotu should be similar to Royce Willis who was renowned for his scrummaging, so much so that Dowd wanted him packing behind him for the ABs when he was with the Blues.
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@pakman said in AB's v Wales:
@stargazer It seems Read is suffering from sciatica. With luck, rest and right exercises will ease disc back into place: fingers crossed!
Sciatica killed my "career". Took 18 months 2 steroid injections and lots of physio to get right.
Prolapsed disc L5S1. Caused by dopey fucking prop who wouldn't bend down properly, exacerbated by trying to deadlift too much.
No doubt knowledge and treatment has improved in 20 years. But it wasn't straightforward.
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Bloody happy with our front row depth at the moment. For next year we will have two strong test quality front rows, plus Ofa , Moli and Aumua. Ofa definitely providing impact in the scrums but a little sloppy in the loose but that is usually a strong area of his game. Way more worried about the locks where it is Whitelock and Rettallick then daylight.
