Sharks vs Blues
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@Tim said in Sharks vs Blues:
Maybe making all ABs miss preseason training was a mistake. Maybe a big guy like Karl T needs to be training more to maintain fitness. He's looked really off the pace so far.
Hmmm... To be fair I'm not sure the point of them missing preseason is to have them firing in the first couple of rounds of super rugby...
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@Bones said in Sharks vs Blues:
@Tim said in Sharks vs Blues:
Maybe making all ABs miss preseason training was a mistake. Maybe a big guy like Karl T needs to be training more to maintain fitness. He's looked really off the pace so far.
Hmmm... To be fair I'm not sure the point of them missing preseason is to have them firing in the first couple of rounds of super rugby...
Yes, but you need them firing....
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@ShadowTrooper sure, in a few months!
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Slept in..just seen the score ..bugger here we go again
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Akira Ioane, Karl T and Dalton Papali'i need to wake the f*** up and realise that they all have a chance to play for the All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup if they hit top form. But there is no chance of that if they keep playing as poorly as they did today.
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Just watching it now. Geez another long season ahead. If anything, the Sharks left plenty of points out there themselves. As @Tim said, we still have massive holes in our squad and it's holding us back.
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Boy that was a hard watch, very flat first half. Good fitness in the second, something that has improved from last year. Yep, that’s how far down I had to look for positives.
Surely that is the last chance for Collins. Unbelievably awful and basically the Blues start with a -7 handicap.
Ruru’s passing was really bad. I guess the ball really was slippery from the humidity because both teams were dropping it all the damn time, made for a very stop start game.
SBW and Nonu to a less extent are g oing to cause us problems as we have to play one of them. TJ is a 12, and needs to play there above both the old guys.
Awful weekend from most of the Kiwi teams.
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@KiwiMurph said in Sharks vs Blues:
@antipodean said in Sharks vs Blues:
Starting to wonder if Tana was the problem...
Its not Leon's squad.
I fail to believe that Leon had absolutely no input on the recruitment of backs in particular since he was signed on as an assistant in May last year. If there were genuine difference making players that Leon felt strongly about he certainly would have had the stroke to get them in the door.
It's as much Leon's squad as any other first year coach in a non-succession situation.
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@Kirwan Yeah 3 second fives and no centre in the squad it's really fucking our midfield up. Yet another blunder from our recruitment team. There's guys in this squad from the previous regime that we desperately need to move on at seasons end.
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Weren’t the blues supposed to be good this year. Same old useless over hyped crap.
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@chchfanatic said in Sharks vs Blues:
Weren’t the blues supposed to be good this year. Same old useless over hyped crap.
Only idiots like you have been saying that. We are just happy that that the reasons for the poor performance are being addressed (Board, Coaches, Talent identification, relationships with Provinces). CEO is under pressure too.
Not one Blues fan was overhyping the team, so you are just full of shit.
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@chchfanatic No it's just opposition fans (mainly Crusaders fans) wanting hype to be there for the Blues so you can throw your usual jokes at us when most, if not all Blues fans know that we're going nowhere and have low expectations year after year.
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@rotated said in Sharks vs Blues:
@KiwiMurph said in Sharks vs Blues:
@antipodean said in Sharks vs Blues:
Starting to wonder if Tana was the problem...
Its not Leon's squad.
I fail to believe that Leon had absolutely no input on the recruitment of backs in particular since he was signed on as an assistant in May last year. If there were genuine difference making players that Leon felt strongly about he certainly would have had the stroke to get them in the door.
It's as much Leon's squad as any other first year coach in a non-succession situation.
It's fairly well known that MacDonald and Coventry had bugger all influence on the squad.
See below.
Let's face it, this is not his squad, and the holdovers and new additions were pretty much all signed off on by his predecessor, and now assistant, Tana Umaga. But MacDonald, the former All Black utility, somehow manages to mix pragmatism with his optimism. Asked how much of this squad, essentially signed and secured by Umaga, was his group and how much influence he's had in selecting the men charged with this turnaround, he was typically forthright. "Limited," he shrugged. "But it definitely feels like my team, or my coaching group's team. We've been here for a month and got into our work. I'm happy with the squad we've got and the way they're responding to what we're asking from them around the strength and conditioning and rugby." -
@African-Monkey wasn’t Akira also going to dominate super rugby and force his way into WC squad.
Blues you have shit halves. Ruru and Pulu are provincial players at best. Black is average too.
Can sometime tell me how reiko is a superstar for the all blacks but average for the blues.
Why are the crusaders good. Because they develop these kids from 17. Get them into the culture early. Their fitness levels are crazy already.
Good luck blues your fun to watch. -
Odd game. Blues awful first half. Hard done with disallowed try. Then when they did score Sharks looked completely stonkered. if we could have showed enough composure to grab second with ten to go we may have stolen it.
Not helped by number of dubious momentum shifting ref decisions.
Watched the last five at 6x!
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@chchfanatic said in Sharks vs Blues:
@African-Monkey wasn’t Akira also going to dominate super rugby and force his way into WC squad.
Blues you have shit halves. Ruru and Pulu are provincial players at best. Black is average too.
Can sometime tell me how reiko is a superstar for the all blacks but average for the blues.
Why are the crusaders good. Because they develop these kids from 17. Get them into the culture early. Their fitness levels are crazy already.
Good luck blues your fun to watch.Akira dominated your mob, fairly comfortably. Remember that game? You had to rely on a friendly ref and our kicker to miss the last kick to win that one.
By your logic, does that mean the Crusaders suck?
Troll posts are boring.
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@KiwiMurph said in Sharks vs Blues:
It's fairly well known that MacDonald and Coventry had bugger all influence on the squad.
Of course, regardless of whether MacDonald was appointed Blues head coach the day following their last game of the season or November when the switch was made the die was already cast in regards to recruitment. By the time MacDonald was announced as assistant in late May how many contracts were left still available? Five? Watch the exodus thread this year by mid-June it's all over aside from a handful of contracts. There was not much left for him to have a say on; but what was left I'm sure he did.
And of course he inherited a squad, that is what happens when you take over a team in a professional sport. It's hardly unique. I guess the subtext is if he had full control of recruitment from the end of last season the composition of the squad would be markedly different. I fail to see how.
I understand the timing and nature of his appointment was a bit strange, but I'm yet to have explained what tangible changes (even in a best case scenario, with a crystal ball to predict M10 Cup performances) in recruitment could have been made post-July that would change the Blues fortunes. I would like to be enlightened though...
Regardless - early days it's second round with a youngish side and an early trip to South Africa I am holding off too much judgement until somewhere between rounds 5-7.
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