Chiefs v Hurricanes
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Five players stood out for me tonight and were key to the Canes victory.
G Evans: best player on the park tonight and stayed composed when it mattered. He’s in my All Blacks squad atm.
JBarrett: match winner and is coming into his own this season.
Blackwell: gets a lot of stick on here about being a lock (me included) but he really showed why he keeps getting selected. Massive ticker.
Kirifi: massive work rate and exceptional performance against Sammy Cane. One for the future.
Rakete-Stones: Game changing performance from the young prop. His work rate is out of this world.Big worry is that of Izzy Walker’s shoulder. Can we afford to lose the big man in that engine room. I’m not too sure.
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That was a terrific win. When you are 24-14 up with 20 to go and with a man advantage for the next 7 minutes, you should be putting that game away. The Chiefs were well deserving of their lead too. The big difference in the first 60 minutes was that the Chiefs kicked a lot better and edged the breakdown. Fletcher Smith's kicking game just isn't good enough.
It was a bizarre end sending the Chiefs bottle it like that. Cane assessed the situation well in his post match talk. They put themselves under pressure by a poor kicking game and let us in the game.
I wasn't thrilled with what Judd was doing in the last few minutes. He was slowing the play down which meant we weren't going anywhere. We did eventually get the penalty but I would have liked to see us take the game to the Chiefs a little bit. In the end it was a dumb penalty which you can't really say came as a result of our pressure.
Happy with the win, which was needed after last week's loss.
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@taniwharugby said in Chiefs v Hurricanes:
@antipodean hasnt always been though...
True, hence the confusion. Yet again I came away impressed by Jaco. Two obvious areas he knew perfectly well and determined correctly. I thought he was consistent and accurate too. A big difference to the worst refs in this competition.
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Jordie eh. One of his first touches is in acres of space, loads of time, from a deep kick.....sizes up the opposition, half a field and many different defenders to run at....BOOM! He's got his man and straightens at pace!
Oh he's picked Cane and turns it over.
Then has a blinder and shows his talent - but it's the stuff like above that is really worrying for him at test level.
There was some dumb play from the Canes again, some of the aimless plays/kicks. Chiefs really should have taken their opportunities better.
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@Kirwan yeah poor from the Chiefs not to shut it down, but you can’t discount the Canes effort. Immense, especially those 30+ phases before the penalty.
I actually felt the Canes looked the better team throughout most of the game, like last week we had plenty of the possession but kept botching it in the red zone.
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@Canes4life said in Chiefs v Hurricanes:
@Kirwan yeah poor from the Chiefs not to shut it down, but you can’t discount the Canes effort. Immense, especially those 30+ phases before the penalty.
35 phases of going nowhere and defended comfortably. That showed more ticker from the Chiefs than the Canes IMO, with the Canes not taking any risks and just hoping for a penalty.
The late tackle was just a brain fart.
The huge effort from the Canes was the period where they were down a man, especially as they wilted under that same pressure the week before.
Was an interesting game to watch as a neutral. This year the gap between four of the NZ sides is minimal.
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@Kirwan it’s easy to defend when a team is being conservative and not pushing the pass, the Canes were obviously not looking for a try, they were looking to milk a penalty and did just that.
Yeah it’s hard not to see four Kiwi teams in the playoffs, where they rank at the end of the season is the question, I suppose Covid 19 will have it’s say but that’s a convo for another thread.
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@Tim said in Chiefs v Hurricanes:
Quick reminder that Rueben O'Neill gave away the penalty at the end. He was one of the 50 players that Steve Hansen (a shit coach) selected ahead of Akira Ioane.
Mate you are a dripping tap. Constant whinging. Have you coached yourself? Successfully?
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Random thoughts...
I thought we were done for when TJ was sent off.
Was waiting for Fafita to be sent off at any time like usual.
Game as an arm wrestle, 30 phases of not making a yard, expecting us to knock it on at any second.
A lot of breaks this season against us and for us seem to come from inside passes. Perhaps needs to be used more agianst rush defense.
The game deserved to be a draw.
ALB was unusually quiet.
I wish Cruden came back to the Canes.
We are going to miss Ben Lam, has to be one of the quickest payers around.
When is Adrie back? Our backrow is ok, but we need a ball runner. Kirifi got through a lot of work. -
@Billy-Tell I bet he's never even played open grade!
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Wow! A classic, hard-fought NZ Derby. Commiserations to the Chiefs and their fans, some great offloads there. Probably should have been a draw.
So proud of the Hurricanes though. Great spirit and belief to bounce back a tough loss to the Blues.
Really pleased for Jordie Barrett to silence all those cow bells and the critics. He is a very special talent and a match winner. I thought Kirifi was fantastic.
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@Canes4life said in Chiefs v Hurricanes:
@Kirwan it’s easy to defend when a team is being conservative and not pushing the pass, the Canes were obviously not looking for a try, they were looking to milk a penalty and did just that.
Yeah it’s hard not to see four Kiwi teams in the playoffs, where they rank at the end of the season is the question, I suppose Covid 19 will have it’s say but that’s a convo for another thread.
Milked a penalty with luck, without forcing anything. That’s why I was saying it wasn’t that impressive.
Was very passive and hopeful.
