Hurricanes v Blues
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@Canes4life Lowe has been excellent during Canes preseason, M10 Cup and for the MABs. He scored plenty of tries. But also noteworthy is that he is best at centre, and they play him on the wing, which is unfortunate.
By the way, all the fuss I've made is about him not getting opportunities. I've never said he's a superstar (at SR level), because basically, we don't know yet how good he can be.
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@Stargazer I'm sure there will be a fair amount of competition next year for those wing positions - whether it's Goosen, Aso, Toala, Lowe, Rayasi or Lam - I guess whoever gets the chance will need to be playing bloody well. Good to have that competition and depth.
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@nzzp said in Hurricanes v Blues:
you can see what SBW brings. Big, fast, offloading machine, with the track record not to choke under severe pressure.
He goes AWOL far too often at Test level IMHO. He may be a great guy, but for every miracle pass there's a knock-on, offside, fumble or brain-fart. He almost cost us a game against France by idiotically knocking the ball over the dead-ball line.
You didn't see that with Nonu.
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@Victor-Meldrew and he cost us the Lions tour.
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@Stargazer said in Hurricanes v Blues:
@Canes4life said in Hurricanes v Blues:
This was really satisfying win as a Canes fan. Bunch of rookies really stepped up and got the result. Really impressed with Peter Umaga-Jensen at centre, I would keep him there through the playoffs.
Really impressed at Fletcher Smiths cameo off the bench at Fullback.
And wow, the Canes had more wins than the Crusaders this year.
Also more losses.
Canes had a very good season YET they've been badly exposed in their 3 defeats to Crusaders and Jaguares
Let see if Canes can shed their rap this season of being flat track bullies
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@Stargazer did you have to torture us with the highlights so soon..!,lol
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@Steven-Harris Haha, sorry, but you really don't have to watch them if you don't want to.
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@Stargazer Nah, I am literally done for the super season ,not going to go and nail my genitalia to a piece of wood or bash my head repeatedly against the toilet bowl..but man alive it’s hard hard work following this franchise..
Just trying to figure out who my allegiances are with regarding the remaining NZ teams ..even my 2nd team the moon dogs have had it rough this year..but they have got some genuine reasons..compromised by having all their Japanese players pulled out along with several key injuries and I guess being told your going to be chopped did not help.. -
@Jaguares4real the Canes are a different beast with Coles in that front row. He adds the mongrel needed to take on big packs like the Crusaders and Jaguares. If the Canes can field Coles, Ardie, Perenara, B Barrett, J Barrett through the playoffs, they are a real chance for the title.
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@Steven-Harris jump on the Canes bandwagon, we have the Blues King in our coaching staff.
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I wasn’t fussed if we’d lost to the Blues I’m was just happy so other squad members got game time...was really weird seeing number 23 is he new😂 just kidding, was really impressed with Gibson and Papali’i they work really well as a team there was always 1 at every breakdown.
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@Canes4life said in Hurricanes v Blues:
@Stargazer With all the games I've seen Lowe play I just don't get what all the fuss is about. Hopefully he gets more game time, because I would like to see if he can deliver at this level. Kudos to the kid if he does.
All the games you've seen him play? How many is that really?
I've seen Goosen play way more games than Lowe (at all levels as Lowe's been injured pretty frequently) and it took him until mid way this year to reach the hype assigned to him (mostly from @Winger and Grint Nesbitt).
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@Steven-Harris dont worry bro you have the roller coaster ride of watching Northland coming up...
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I'm just dropping into this thread to express my deep frustration and disappointment with the Blues. The back end of the season (last two weeks in particular) have been soul destroying. I feel for Leon and his crew, it's a hard job, and if (when?) we see some success, it's going to be so sweet as a result. Cheap shots aside, any bastard who keeps supporting this lot deserves credit (and possibly their head read).
Stay the course, believe in John, Don and Leon. Good things take time, and this sure as hell is taking its time. Having seen the whole season, there is a foundation there to build on, but mental strength is probably the hardest thing to fix and the thing that is most needed.
If you're playing the Blues right now, you'd back yourself to come back from anywhere. Any farking where, like 24 points in a half of rugby. Fark me, it's tough at the moment.
The thing that really annoys me is we do some good things, followed by unforced errors, mental weakness and tactical ineptitude. The number of unforced errors this year has me tearing my hear out... but that's easier to fix than the fading out of games.
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@nzzp The last 3 weeks have been soul destroying tbh, and the worst thing is, is that we're waiting for it to happen in games. I love the side and would rather die before supporting anyone else, but man it's a shit feeling seeing the same thing happen over and over and over again for the past 8 seasons and I don't see it getting better next season either with the massive holes we have in our side and no-one really willing to come and play for us.
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I take back the nice things I said about the Blues earlier in the year. They still suck donkeys balls. They should have mopped up that Canes team.
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The signing of Nonu, even though he’s been one of the Blues best this season, should never of happened. It’s the perfect example of the Blues failing to develop their own players. I’m talking about the Manu, Faiane combo that worked so well. They should have signed Manu, instead of the temporary Nonu and maybe next year they wouldn’t of had a midfield hole.
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@Canes4life said in Hurricanes v Blues:
The signing of Nonu, even though he’s been one of the Blues best this season, should never of happened. It’s the perfect example of the Blues failing to develop their own players. I’m talking about the Manu, Faiane combo that worked so well. They should have signed Manu, instead of the temporary Nonu and maybe next year they wouldn’t of had a midfield hole.
Except the spot you are talking about is the one taken by Aumua (from Ta$man). They could have easily signed Manu rather than Aumua and had experience and the future there. It's worth remembering that he's been sitting on his ass most of the season too - a good example of the Blues relying on set combos and not using all of their squad. If I had to focus on one thing this year, that's what I'd be bagging the coaching and administration team for - they had a bunch of players who they hardly used and others who they ran into the ground. They could have easily switched up the loose forward, lock, and midfield combos but chose not to...
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@Canes4life said in Hurricanes v Blues:
The signing of Nonu, even though he’s been one of the Blues best this season, should never of happened. It’s the perfect example of the Blues failing to develop their own players. I’m talking about the Manu, Faiane combo that worked so well. They should have signed Manu, instead of the temporary Nonu and maybe next year they wouldn’t of had a midfield hole.
Nonu was a good signing to add experience to the squad and with SBW injured he played more minutes than would have been expected. Having experience doesn't have to come instead of youth.
