Bledisloe #2
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@No-Quarter That's why I'd have JB on the right wing, and yes, I'm still shocked to this day that the Boks threw long with 10 to go 5 metres out and missed the target when I was certain they would go to their strength and go to front and rumble over or at the very least, win a penalty for Pollard to knock over because he wasn't missing that day.
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@African-Monkey said in Bledisloe #2:
@No-Quarter That's why I'd have JB on the right wing, and yes, I'm still shocked to this day that the Boks threw long with 10 to go 5 metres out and missed the target when I was certain they would go to their strength and go to front and rumble over or at the very least, win a penalty for Pollard to knock over because he wasn't missing that day.
Jordie is outstanding under the high ball but he's been really inconsistent this year, for both the Canes and the ABs. Some great mixed in with some awful, we can't afford brain farts in a tight knockout game.
That said, Bridge doesn't have a heap of experience either. The right wing spot is wide open.
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@No-Quarter said in Bledisloe #2:
@African-Monkey yup that's what worries me. People forget how damn close that game was, it was real trench warfare.
Yeah I was, and still am, of the opinion that leaving Charles Piutau out of the 2015 squad for two rookies was a mistake. NMS provided some good highlights, but was a liability in our one stinker of a knockout game.
Big difference to this time though, Piutau was absolutely awesome back then, in 2019 we have guys who are flat, mediocre, or maybe just gotten too old.
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@No-Quarter Yeah I get that. I do feel though that if he's told at he'll be playing in the one position instead of being thrown around everywhere, then we'll see the best of him. He gets my (irrelevant) vote to start on the right wing and is still a very good player in my eyes.
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@African-Monkey you don’t want Coltman because he can’t throw to save himself, yet you want Harris, who is guaranteed to throw his first 2 line outs crooked... 🤔
Personally I can’t see them going back to Harris after being overlooked for Coltman and Aumua in TRC squad. Coltman hasn’t had enough chances to play himself out out of the squad.
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@Gunner Hey, I'm not high on Harris either but I think they sent him back to play for BOP for more gametime to sharpen up instead of carrying tackle bags and they obviously want to see the other 2 in the enviroment. It's only for the 3rd hooker spot but they've had him for the last 3-4 years around the squad and Coltman and Aumua haven't done anything amazing limited opportunity or not to overtake him so I think Harris makes the squad.
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@African-Monkey said in Bledisloe #2:
@No-Quarter That's why I'd have JB on the right wing, and yes, I'm still shocked to this day that the Boks threw long with 10 to go 5 metres out and missed the target when I was certain they would go to their strength and go to front and rumble over or at the very least, win a penalty for Pollard to knock over because he wasn't missing that day.
Sam Whitelock winning that lineout ball is one of the great AB moments.
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I remember the coaches saying, rightly or wrongly they thought of Charles as a left winger , so he wasn’t going to displace Jules ( at the time )
And nms was carving it up on the right when given an opportunity. I thought he and bender on the right as a 1-2 punch worked well
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@akan004 said in Bledisloe #2:
Great performance but hard to truly assess where they are at. Australia brought so little line speed and made it easy for us, the other teams won't do this.
I thought we made it hard for them with the changes we made defensively around the fringes and also our territory game.
Much harder to try things with ball in hand when you are camped down in your half. That happened to us last week. Happened to OZ this week.
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@Stargazer haha Cane trying to cut Shag out of the selfie.
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@booboo said in Bledisloe #2:
@nzzp said in Bledisloe #2:
Crowd was in fine voice. Plenty of voice, plenty of vocal support. Our reputation as a library is probably not deserved any more... we're not shy of getting stuck in now. Would have felt pretty hostile. 3 minutes to go Aussies were leaving, and the whole north stand stood up and farewelled them. Quality.
Showed that on tele. Looked like the Aussies were owning it so credit to them.
yes the aussies who left early were very magnanimous - they sensibly wanted to be first to get to the bar
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So, the Sunday morning thread read isn't nearly as much fun when we win comfortably.
So my random thoughts on the game:
So I think I was correct in thinking we haven't been playing direct this year, however in this must win match we played really direct and smashed them up in the forwards. I think the TWM must be disappointed they had to play direct in this match as I think they were saving it for the cup finals themselves. We also massively tidied up our defence, although TBF last week we just had so little ball that we had to make so many tackles that we were always going to miss a few.
There seems to be a bit of a loss of perspective on the wings. Yes they both played well (Reece especially played better than I thought he would in defence and without the ball, Bridge as I expected) but it's impossible to make a comparison between this week and last week - last week the forwards played like fairies and the backs suffered because of it (and they were down to 14 for 40 minutes) and this week the pack kicked arse and the wings benefited from decent front foot and counter attack ball. I think Ioane would have carved up just like Bridge did last night with that extra space. Can't believe some are genuinely suggesting he'll be dropped.
Coles is getting shit but I thought he played well outside of his yellow and getting a yellow for dumping a mouthy halfback out of a maul which we were dominating isn't too bad in the scheme of things.
The loosies were awesome. Savea spent the first 40 minutes emulating his brother on the wing (the good version, not the fatty version), dare I say it very Fifita like, then spent the second 40 in the middle more making tackles and hitting rucks. I wonder if that was the gameplan. Also, we may as well just give Ardie the number 8 jumper. He's playing 8, Read is playing 6 and Cane is playing his brand of hard tackling 7 for 60 minutes until they bring Todd on. I still don't get Todd, good rugby player, but 3 7's in the team just seems overkill.
Patty T stood up and didn't get himself red carded so that's a bonus. Whitelock had a new haircut, he doesn't quite look like the missing link as much anymore, and that coincided with his best test of the year.
Beaunga is starting to gel I reckon. I was generally worried when Mo'unga came off injured. Not for the game, BB could easily slot into 10, but for the RWC. Thankfully it looks like it's not serious. SBW and ALB were both good. Smith ran the game well, like he used to.
JB still worries the shit out of me, even though I thought he was decent, but he still looks like he's 30 seconds away from doing something stupid. I guess I have to trust he'll come right like DMac did (who copped far worse from some posters than JB does for arguably less stupidity).
White looked shit this week, Genia looked good when he came on. The number 6 who changed his name was awesome last week, he was terrible this week. My non regular rugby watching Aussie mate picked up how bad he was early in the game and then spent the rest of the game shouting at the screen to get him off. Kervei was irrelevant without as much ball as last week and O'Connor was just left to tackle all day. Beale had his worst test in a while.
Best thing about the win (aside from keeping the Aussies scoreless), my Aussie mate who was in Singapore for last weeks match and spammed the shit out of me for two days after the match was sitting right next to me on the couch for this match. I'd like to say I was a magnanimous winner ... but I wasn't, I rubbed that win in his face all through the match and then for the next couple of hours at dinner, where to his credit he still proudly wore his wallabies jumper (which looks like a soccer shirt) all night.
Edit: Must proof better next time and not start three sentences in a row with 'so'.
Second Edit: How could I forget, how awesome was it seeing our 7 man scrum smash the Wallabies! Rugby porn of the highest order. -
I think the biggest lessons for both teams out of the last 8 days are:
The Wallabies' best is good enough to win
NZ can no longer have an off day, as below our best probably isn't good enough.
I think they are lessons both coaches will be happy with
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just re-watched it (fast forwarding to the good bits)
THat period under the pump 10 mins in was some great defence, granted we pushed the off-side line a bit...someone drove Beale back from the ingoal area into the field of play.
But as we started the 29th minute, the score was still 3-0...Aus were on attack, an average pass went to deck, Richie swooped and he was gone.
IIRC up until that point the stats were favouring the Aussies comfortably, but for no reward (2 missed kicks) nek minut 10-0, then 17-0...think the 28-31 min period broke the wallabies.
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@taniwharugby said in Bledisloe #2:
THat period under the pump 10 mins in was some great defence, granted we pushed the off-side line a bit...someone drove Beale back from the ingoal area into the field of play.
Tuipolotu! Really stepped up
