Has Hansen gone stale?
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The ABs seem to have lost ability to smash through tackles and leave opponents on their arses.
Akira Ioane and Ngani Laumape are the two guys who at Super Level regularly smash away defenders. But neither are Hansen's favourites.
Developing a pick and go game again would help against Ireland.
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@shadowtrooper said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
My English mate reckons Ireland have 1 big game in them every so often. Lets hope that was the game. By christ come RWC time I want us to be so dominant we will have all the other teams sat on their arses and crying for their mummies....
We definitely want to avoid them in the quarters. I am confident that we will beat them but the game will be so physically draining with the style they play that we will be shattered come the semis and final.
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@akan004 said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
We definitely want to avoid them in the quarters.
@Donsteppa 's "couches to hide behind" business would be fucking booming.
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@snowy said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@akan004 said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
We definitely want to avoid them in the quarters.
@Donsteppa 's "couches to hide behind" business would be fucking booming.
Investing in Harvey Norman shares as we speak.
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@donsteppa said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
The “we were holding something back” argument is always nice wishful thinking, but often bollocks.
I can’t easily remember the last time a team suddenly pulled off a triple scissors esque move for the first time ever in an RWC knockout game.
That's simplifying things rather drastically isn't it? I don't think anyone talking about us holding something back is talking about dinky little scrum moves, being disingenuous there.
Patterns, styles, players, combinations, etc. The confusing thing about the ABs over the past 2 years has been watching them cycle through several different periods within a game where they will completely dominate and then shift to doing something slightly different and look average. I think they're more likely to pull out bit parts to see how they can do them and their effect, knowing they can piece them together when required. I think that's where the ABs are lucky in that they've been that far ahead they have the ability to do this, whereas even if other teams are keeping their powder dry, they don't have as comfortable a leeway there.
Players that have looked the goods have been used very little or not at all, yet have been kept close to camp.
Even Coles has decided to not throw into a lineout properly, so that's obviously a tactic. Which takes the heat off Harris.
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@akan004 said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@shadowtrooper said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
My English mate reckons Ireland have 1 big game in them every so often. Lets hope that was the game. By christ come RWC time I want us to be so dominant we will have all the other teams sat on their arses and crying for their mummies....
We definitely want to avoid them in the quarters. I am confident that we will beat them but the game will be so physically draining with the style they play that we will be shattered come the semis and final.
That's also why I don't think Ireland can win the entire thing. No way they can play like that 3 games straight.
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@akan004 said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@shadowtrooper said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
My English mate reckons Ireland have 1 big game in them every so often. Lets hope that was the game. By christ come RWC time I want us to be so dominant we will have all the other teams sat on their arses and crying for their mummies....
We definitely want to avoid them in the quarters. I am confident that we will beat them but the game will be so physically draining with the style they play that we will be shattered come the semis and final.
That's the unfortunate thing for Ireland - they're almost certainly going to have either us or the Jaapies as their QF opponent, while if we can put those SA feckers away in the round robin, we've got a good chance of playing Scotland - and, best of all, allowing either SA or Ireland to take the other out.
If we can't beat the Jaapies in the round robin, well, we deserve what we get!
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@rancid-schnitzel said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@akan004 said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@shadowtrooper said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
My English mate reckons Ireland have 1 big game in them every so often. Lets hope that was the game. By christ come RWC time I want us to be so dominant we will have all the other teams sat on their arses and crying for their mummies....
We definitely want to avoid them in the quarters. I am confident that we will beat them but the game will be so physically draining with the style they play that we will be shattered come the semis and final.
That's also why I don't think Ireland can win the entire thing. No way they can play like that 3 games straight.
Plus pool play too - ya gotta front up for 5 pool games, and then up to three knockouts. That's some serious load on the body. Ireland have Samoa, Japan and Scotland as well as Russia in their pool.
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@nzzp Agreed. I think our draw isn't perfect either because we have Italy as our last pool game. I watched their game against the wobs on the weekend and they look like a pretty physical team now. Would have been better if we had them earlier in the pool stages.
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@akan004 said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@nzzp Agreed. I think our draw isn't perfect either because we have Italy as our last pool game. I watched their game against the wobs on the weekend and they look like a pretty physical team now. Would have been better if we had them earlier in the pool stages.
I"m happy with Italy last. They want a physical game - makes it easier than going to the south of france during the repechage ...
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@bones said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@donsteppa said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
The “we were holding something back” argument is always nice wishful thinking, but often bollocks.
I can’t easily remember the last time a team suddenly pulled off a triple scissors esque move for the first time ever in an RWC knockout game.
That's simplifying things rather drastically isn't it? I don't think anyone talking about us holding something back is talking about dinky little scrum moves, being disingenuous there.
Patterns, styles, players, combinations, etc. The confusing thing about the ABs over the past 2 years has been watching them cycle through several different periods within a game where they will completely dominate and then shift to doing something slightly different and look average. I think they're more likely to pull out bit parts to see how they can do them and their effect, knowing they can piece them together when required. I think that's where the ABs are lucky in that they've been that far ahead they have the ability to do this, whereas even if other teams are keeping their powder dry, they don't have as comfortable a leeway there.
Players that have looked the goods have been used very little or not at all, yet have been kept close to camp.
Even Coles has decided to not throw into a lineout properly, so that's obviously a tactic. Which takes the heat off Harris.
I agree. I think the biggest pointer towards the whole "keeping your powder dry" thing (by the way, i think it is a terrible way to describe it) is the game plan/tactic the ABs pulled out against the Lions in the first test. The whole lead up to that game the talk was about how they had no answer to the rush defence. The ABs showed in that game that they clearly did. However, since then we have only seen that plan used for 10 minutes here 15 minutes there. That little period against England after Crotty came on was a good example.
I don't believe for a second that the coaches or players have forgotten that gameplan. They have just put it away in their back pocket to try out other things so they have options and the other teams don't have hours of game footage to analyse and counter it.Anyway could be worse. We could be Australia and have lost 8 games this year with England still to come.
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@nzzp said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@akan004 said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@nzzp Agreed. I think our draw isn't perfect either because we have Italy as our last pool game. I watched their game against the wobs on the weekend and they look like a pretty physical team now. Would have been better if we had them earlier in the pool stages.
I"m happy with Italy last. They want a physical game - makes it easier than going to the south of france during the repechage ...
Yeah although an easy pool didn't effect us the last time.
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@shadowtrooper said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
My English mate reckons Ireland have 1 big game in them every so often. Lets hope that was the game. By christ come RWC time I want us to be so dominant we will have all the other teams sat on their arses and crying for their mummies....
Not a bad summary except that every so often is turning out to be about 4 times a year now.
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@akan004 said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@nzzp said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@akan004 said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@nzzp Agreed. I think our draw isn't perfect either because we have Italy as our last pool game. I watched their game against the wobs on the weekend and they look like a pretty physical team now. Would have been better if we had them earlier in the pool stages.
I"m happy with Italy last. They want a physical game - makes it easier than going to the south of france during the repechage ...
Yeah although an easy pool didn't effect us the last time.
We countered that though, by making it look difficult.
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@majorrage said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@akan004 said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@nzzp said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@akan004 said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@nzzp Agreed. I think our draw isn't perfect either because we have Italy as our last pool game. I watched their game against the wobs on the weekend and they look like a pretty physical team now. Would have been better if we had them earlier in the pool stages.
I"m happy with Italy last. They want a physical game - makes it easier than going to the south of france during the repechage ...
Yeah although an easy pool didn't effect us the last time.
We countered that though, by making it look difficult.
Post-cup the team explained the poor early performances were down to a heavy training schedule. They tapered off in time to smash the frogs in the QF
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Keeping powder dry? - I think there is a very small element of this. They have certainly been trialling different things for spells and taking note of what is effective and what isn't.
It is interesting that the coaches keep referring to players' getting to grips with a new style' but there has not been any evidence of a 'new style' at all. Just lots of different things for short spells.
I think there is also a case of seeing the plans these teams have against us. Where does Ireland go from here? They have found a way to win and will use it again. Now we just need to plot the way past that plan.
I don't think they have been too cute, just playing to the edge and hoping to pull through. When our best players all have a shit day at the same time then it is a given that this plan won't work.I have my fingers crossed that Hansen has taken these risks as part of a grand plan. The plan may not work, but I think he realises that continuing to play a style of feeding off turnovers only lasts so long and that by RWC it will be dead.
I will be interested to see what this eventual change will be. They have been periods where we have just bent the line one out and recycled but I don't think that is the real answer. Ireland showed how they could shut that down well.
We will still have an advantage of transition play that teams like Ireland and England don't have. It isn't instinctive in their bread and butter rugby and the players don't grow up doing it. Those hundredths of seconds deciding to make an unexpected pass or see an opportunity before it happens will still be a strength, we just can't rely on those turnovers against low risk taking teams.The reality in that game was that we had too many players out of form at once. Franks, Codie, BBBR, Read, AS, BB, Reiko. It was like someone had slipped them all a sedative. Was very unusual.
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@crucial not to mention missing Moody & Cane, 2 guys that do alot of defensive work, with the latter possibly being missed more than we realise despite Ardie playing the house down in his looser role.
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@taniwharugby You are almost always going to be missing some top players - weren't Ireland missing about 4 of their top side (similarly England the week prior)?
