Bledisloe #2
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@KiwiMurph said in Bledisloe #2:
Franks would be a candidate to be dropped entirely from the 23 this week you'd think with Laulala and Taavao in the squad (I assume they'll ask Ofa to play loosehead).
Is Ofa really good enough to be a Test loosehead? I doubt it. Agree re Franks, Laulala has to be given the starting spot now.
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When we look at this test now we will by the end of the game have a FULL look at what coaches have in mind for WC. Reason for this is the importance they place on the Bledisloe Cup. They state over and over again this so the whole 'keeping the powder dry' experiment will to a degree be thrown out as they will surely start the team they see as the best available and play the gameplan they see as winning won't they?
so we will I assume not be guessing about the form of the team, the makeup or gameplan after this weekend. -
@akan004 said in Bledisloe #2:
@KiwiMurph said in Bledisloe #2:
Franks would be a candidate to be dropped entirely from the 23 this week you'd think with Laulala and Taavao in the squad (I assume they'll ask Ofa to play loosehead).
Is Ofa really good enough to be a Test loosehead? I doubt it. Agree re Franks, Laulala has to be given the starting spot now.
The issue is - the two most mobile props we have are Taavao and Ofa who are both better at tighthead. But there is also Laulala. So unless Ofa plays loosehead one of them misses out (plus we aren't flush with loosehead options as Moli is very raw).
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What were the first half possession stats? We seemed to have so little ball that I'm reasonably happy that we didn't waste it by having Owen run three steps and fall over. Though in fairness, at least he probably wouldn't have tried a stupid little chip kick like the backs seemed to think was a good idea.
Need to re-watch, but on reflection it seems like there were very few high kicks from either team?
I don't think we've got a better loosehead option than Joe Moody, so any change needs to be at tighthead IMO.
Kane Hames would be quite handy right now - but, he was commentating the Ta$man-Wellington match at the weekend.
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@Chris-B Moody was the best loosehead in the world in 2017 and had the better of Furlong during the Lions series, so am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully he can regain some of that lost form. Not happy with the overall prop selection, I think Karl T needs to come back into the mix. Currently we only have one decent scrumaging loosehead and that's Moody.
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@akan004 said in Bledisloe #2:
Hopefully he can regain some of that lost form
there is an awful lot of that floating around at the moment
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As a prop, I'll point out that dominating an opponent or opposition scrum is, in large part, due to your second row.
At my little amateur club, there is a second rower who is a bloody hard working ball runner, and a fairly hefty unit, but at scrum time he's nowhere near the other guy who is more agile but "gets it" at scrum time on the push.
So you can talk about Moody being good but it doesn't mean much unless you look at the guy pushing him and his mates around. I'd say Retallick is probably a factor in making Moody look good at Test level.
Franks needs to get the arse tho. He's still got that stupid niggly thing hanging over his head, and is relatively easy to prop against due to his bad foot setup.
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I was sooo bored today and am now stuck on the number of carries our forwards are doing on attack I have developed a new metric, Carries vs Possession %. I have no idea why I have done this other than my obsessive brain.
No idea if it is says anything about us on attack have included past ABs games and the recent weekend games of others for comparison.
what is evident is overall we maybe are not that bad as our bench carries more than other nations however our starters get mauled by the opposition. This i guess back up we often finish strong.
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This is a bit more like it - rather than just blaming the red card.
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@KiwiMurph Seems like we haven't been desperate for two years.
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@98blueandgold Why are there only 13 players? Am I misreading this completely?
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@Nepia said in Bledisloe #2:
@98blueandgold Why are there only 13 players? Am I misreading this completely?
Iām reading it as 8 starters plus 5 subs.
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@JC said in Bledisloe #2:
@Nepia said in Bledisloe #2:
@98blueandgold Why are there only 13 players? Am I misreading this completely?
Iām reading it as 8 starters plus 5 subs.
Ah pack only! š
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From the article:
"The switch was flicked as soon as we woke up Sunday in Perth. There were guys on their computers at 9am looking at their games, at ways to get better. The whole trip home was trying to recover best so we woke up this morning in good shape to attack the week."
This either shows they are serious or, if they don't win well on Saturday, it's paper-tiger time.
Interesting it was Coles and Cane fronting up. Hopefully Read is saying something similar behind the scnes.
