All Blacks v France Test #2
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Objectively poor performance from the ABs. Worst in a very long time.
Before the series many lamented the lack of quality in the loose forwards. Last week Luke Whitelock exceeded expectations, but this week was back in journeyman mode. I thought Squire was ineffectual last week despite what some posters said, and tonight he was again very poor before his injury. Ardie and Fifita are not test quality and never will be, why are they still there?
The loosies were poor, but so were the tight 5. Scott Barrett could not back up a big performance last week, and Sam Whitelock had one of his worst performances in black (by his standards). Missing BBBR big time there - when the going gets tough that man gets going and some.
Hoping Aumua gets fit and gets up to speed ASAP, as Harris is a long way off being test quality and we need a decent bench option at hooker.
We started that match poorly with absolutely no intensity. Then the French idiot forgot the laws and didn't watch where he was going and ruined the game as a contest. And after that we decided to play Super rugby and throw it around which was just fucking braindead stuff against 14 men. I expect the ABs to be ruthless, but tonight they played dumb rugby for the full 80.
Would things have been different had the red card not occurred? For sure, but who knows how. Chances are we would have pulled our heads out of our asses instead of treating it like a bloody training run.
I reckon ALB is basically the only AB that comes out of that with his head held high. Jordie was OK - you can see he has all the attributes to be a fantastic player - but he was well below his potential tonight.
DMac actually wasn't total shit, but the dropoff in class between him and Beauden is fucking massive Beauden is now one of our most important players given the lack of quality behind him.
I'd say flush the dunny and move on, but that's the last thing I want them to do. Force the players to watch that shower of shit all week to ensure they start the game with a bit of bloody purpose in Dunedin.
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Awful performance. I wonder if it came from two of the normally most reliable AB's - Crotty & Cane - having an off-day.
ALB's best game in black for some time and Big Karl did OK, as did JB, but the rest ranged from OK to awful. Sam Whitelock had a shocker (by his standards) and you wonder if that affected his captaincy.
DMac did OK at 10 once he settled in and at least tried to grab the initiative - unlike some others you could mention. Not a starter at 10 (or 9...) though.
Les Frogs were superb but, cruel as it sounds, can't blame anyone but themselves for the result. You don't butcher 2 tries against NZ and hope to win.
Liked Gardner's reffing a lot. Consistent, communicated and kept out of the game as much as possible - which is exactly what you want in a Ref.
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@mrdenmore Right?
He took an age, reviewed the footage over and over and then revealed that he was the only human on the planet to have seen a red card offence.
Plenty of people around the world don't have their heads up their arses and saw from the law that's a RC all day. Blaming the ref for getting it correct is incredibly retarded.
Christ. He also said this:
A wrongly shown yellow card cost them the game last week
No, letting in a million tries cost them the game.
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What a shit game, ruined by the red card.
Just on the card: it was red all day. Anyone who says otherwise hasn't been watching rugby for the last 5 years. Whether it SHOULD be red is a totally different discussion.The game itself resembled one of those bumbling performances against a minnow at a world cup.
Not many players were good. J Barrett probably my motm.
Squire, L Whitelock, Harris, Ardie and Fifita just aren't long term AB standard. Unfortunately the rest of the team played down to their level today too. So much sloppy, stupid shit.Still not liking the midfield balance. Crotty and ALB too samey for me. Need someone who can actually bend the line a bit to provide another option.
Luckily Laumape, SBW and Goodhue provide that. It is just a matter of selecting them.Thought this game also demonstrated why having Dmac covering BB is a shit idea. It's all well and good to want impact late in the game but when you need to cover an early injury to BB you are basically playing without a 10. That position is too important to gamble with IMO. It's not as if BB couldn't provide an impact moving to 15 late in a game if you need to change things up a bit anyway.
Prediction time: we are going to get murdered at the breakdown by Aust in the RC.
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@victor-meldrew said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
DMac did OK at 10 once he settled in and at least tried to grab the initiative - unlike some others you could mention. Not a starter at 10 (or 9...) though.
You obviously saw something I didn’t in DMac. We had no shape with him at 1st Five. He has all the skills but can’t run a game. He plays a high risk game at the best of times, but when he’s playing there he seems to make everybody else play one as well. They didn’t have to take risks tonight, they needed patience to make the extra man tell, and they showed none.
BTW, Those possession and territory stats are appalling. Win or not, this wasn’t a tackle practice session.
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@pukunui said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
What a shit game, ruined by the red card.
Just on the card: it was red all day. Anyone who says otherwise hasn't been watching rugby for the last 5 years. Whether it SHOULD be red is a totally different discussion.Just listening to the post game conference and Shag's saying what a lot of people are; except in clear cases of deliberate foul play, make it yellow with automatic citing.
In effect, that's just raising the standard for red cards.
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@antipodean said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
Luke was invisible, and not in a Reuben way.
Ardie is a poor man's Pocock. Swanning about waiting for turnovers.
Fifita looks like he'd squat about 60kg.
Was Liam on the field?@hydro11 said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
The difference between scoring 26 and scoring 50 was just a bit of patience. It seemed like our idea when they lost a man was to play the game as quickly as possible. We did lots of quick taps, most of which came to nothing.
Or they sprinted away from any support resulting in the completely foreseeable turnover.
Yep. Why tf tap and run deep inside your own half when a man up?
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@jc said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
You obviously saw something I didn’t in DMac. We had no shape with him at 1st Five. He has all the skills but can’t run a game.
Take your point, but we lacked shape from 1-15 (esp. 1-9). Hard to see how that can be blamed on DMac's play.
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@mrdenmore said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
As usual, Gregor Paul gets it right here.
How the hell was it a ludicrous decision? The only thing ludicrous is that headline.
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@antipodean said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
@pukunui said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
What a shit game, ruined by the red card.
Just on the card: it was red all day. Anyone who says otherwise hasn't been watching rugby for the last 5 years. Whether it SHOULD be red is a totally different discussion.Just listening to the post game conference and Shag's saying what a lot of people are; except in clear cases of deliberate foul play, make it yellow with automatic citing.
In effect, that's just raising the standard for red cards.
For 40 years there was just Cyril Brownlie. Then Pinetree joined the AB red card club.
Nowadays they're having to build new clubrooms to fit in all the members.
I don't think rugby can continue to punish everyone watching with 15 onto 14 games. I think a red card for most offences needs - as someone suggested earlier in the thread - to be the player committing the offence sent from the field permanently, but able to be replaced after a period of time.
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@no-quarter said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
Marhsall proves once again he doesn't even have a basic knowledge of the laws. How the fuck was he an AB?!
Nah, this is a load of bollocks
You're talking shit man
He was a fucking fine All Black no need to conflate his AB career just because of your precious opinion about mainstream media commentary.
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@voltron said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
@rocky-rockbottom
That’s a truly shit analysis.
What about McKenzie showing that he is a world class 10?
Won’t he long before he overtakes Barrett
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@gunner said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
@tim said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
Don't worry guys, Shannon Frizell is available for next week.
Luke Whitelock
Ardie Savea
Fiftia
Liam SquireAll awful.
What are you talking about? None of them were playing tonight were they?
At this rate I'd be happy if they shifted Sam to 6 and brought Todd in. At least you know you're going to see some guts expressed on the paddock.
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@siam said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
@no-quarter said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
Marhsall proves once again he doesn't even have a basic knowledge of the laws. How the fuck was he an AB?!
Nah, this is a load of bollocks
You're talking shit man
He was a fucking fine All Black no need to conflate his AB career just because of your precious opinion about mainstream media commentary.
He was a fine AB that appears to lack a basic knowledge of the laws. But, he was a halfback, so that probably explains a lot.
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I'm sick of this shit.
If it's all about safety then ban jumping for the ball altogether.
If you want to have jumping then don't have different penalties based on where someone lands. It's fucking stupid to have a different result solely due to where someone lands. Just decide if it's yellow or red and make it the same sanction all the time.
Anyway, ABs played shitter against 14 than they probably would have against 15.
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@kev said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
When did we start giving away possession with so much kicking early on in the game? We used play rugby with ball in hand, looking for space. The cross kick as our first attacking play?
I actually think that is one of the 'new playbook' things to counter the rush defence. They haven't got it perfect yet in execution or picking the right time but the idea is right. If you can catch the opposition in possession behind the defensive line with every scrambling back the defensive players will start doubting their defensive plan and have one eye on that possibility. It is then a case of recognising when someone has done this and got out of line with the rush to exploit it.
It's nothing new except they are trying to do it at unexpected times to create that doubt.
It certainly looked pre-ordained to me. -
@no-quarter said in All Blacks v France Test #2:
Marhsall proves once again he doesn't even have a basic knowledge of the laws. How the fuck was he an AB?!
TBF, If he'd put on one of his many AB jerseys and played today he'd probably still be more effective than most of the AB team today.
