Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11
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Joe Moody, Sam Cane and Aaron Smith were World Class. The rest of that starting team not so much on today's evidence.
Sotutu, Clarke and Jordan must all start next week. Dane Coles, TJP and George Bridge are injury cover now & past their best. Goodhue is a 13 not a 12.
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@Derpus the foot in touch was a sliding doors moment, Ioanes brain fart, not so, half ends and we get 7 or we dont...no restart from a lineout, scrum, 22 or whatever.
As a Northland fan, I gotta say today I prefer winning ugly than drawing ugly!
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@rotated said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
At this point I don't really care who it is, but can we just pick a centre combo and stick with it?
Been saying that for 3-4 years. The combination is as important as the players IMHO.
We don't just try different combinations, we play people out of position in what seems to be some weird game of musical chairs.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
We don't just try different combinations
many years ago we did have 20+ test matches in a row when we didnt have the same pair start before Nonu-Conrad became a fixture...
Maybe Ioane/Clarke can start on either wing, JB to FB and ALB-Goodhue in the mid-field
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@Derpus said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@Nevorian and if Gus wasn't blind we win the match. Who gives a shit about ifs and buts.
Nah - that try doesn't happen, whole course of the game changes. Never know what could happen from there.
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Went in to the game and took my four year daughter. Was a great atmosphere and the extra minutes at the end just added to the experience. Will have to watch the game again this week as you miss so much at the game. Best part was some drunk lady distracted my daughter for most of the game so I actually got to watch most of it.
Couple of things on the game (though won't stand by them too closely until I've rewatched it).
Backs
DMac looked a lot better here than he did for the Chiefs. I'd still rather see one of the Barretts there but was good to see him get some form back.Jordie is way to pedestrian for wing. There was one point early in the first half where he appeared to be trying to run through quick sand.
Will be interesting to watch Reiko. He appeared to fuck up by not passing to Jordie at one stage and hogged the ball instead. And dropping the ball like he did is embarrassing and effectively lost us the game. I really wish that he'd go back to being the worlds best winger.
Bridge is so impotent. Really doesn't seem to offer much. Though that was a sweet pass that lead to Smith's try.
R'Mo looked below test level standard. Looked indecisive at times and seemed to have no confidence in the end to demand they set up for a droppie. Might be a while before he finds his feet at test level.
Ardie was no where near a test standard 8. I've got no idea why Foster (other than Foster is a fuckwit) picks two sevens in his starting trio and asks one of them to play like a big bopper 8. Sevens work best when they have constant interactions in the game.
Cane was awesome and hit attackers like a truck. Though his first game as captain had a real 2020 Chiefs feel to it.
I thought Frizell went OK. He tackled well and it's not his fault the loose forward mix is out.
Moody tackled well and Ofa hit hard but fell off a few tackles. Cody appeared to carry on his average 2019 form.
Rennie 'out coached' Foster. The OZ first half was excellent as they more often than not would have been playing into the swirling breeze. I think a stat popped up at halftime that OZ had 70% possession and territory which is clever rugby in those conditions.
Not much to say about the Wallabies other than well done and they probably deserved to win the game. I think an area they can make good improvement in is their accuracy at the breakdown. The amount of times the AB's managed to get a turnover or penalty after a Wallaby went flying/crashing over the ruck instead of actually clearing out was hilarious. Lucky for the AB's too as it meant the Wallabies couldn't build enough pressure.
Looking forward to catching this on TV and revising my opinions.
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@taniwharugby said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
many years ago we did have 20+ test matches in a row when we didnt have the same pair start before Nonu-Conrad became a fixture...
Yeah and we ended up playing the best 15 in the world at 13. Went well.
Constant buggering around was a crap idea then, crap idea now.
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Sparky's blame game
1.NZR for choosing Ian Foster as Head Coach. There were other better options available: Razor, Jamie Joseph, Dave Rennie. They went with Foster as a "job for the boys" pick. Today our team was comprehensively outcoached.
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Ian Foster for creating a safety-first culture within the ABs. The All Blacks should be expected to win every match. Foster set up his team not to lose.
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Foster, Fox and Plumtree for selecting a number of players who were tried and found wanting in the last World Cup cycle. Young talent like Hoskins Sotutu, Caleb Clarke and Will Jordan should have started. No more selecting a team of your pals, select a team to win.
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Reiko Ioane. Know your history and learn from this. Showboating is not part of the All Blacks game. Could have been a great try. Go watch the tapes of Grant Batty, Bryan Williams, John Kirwan, Jonah Lomu and Doug Howlett scoring tries. Put the ball down with two hands carefully, then jog back to the middle.
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Richie Mo'unga. Know you history and learn from this. We lost in Cardiff in 07 and drew against the Lions in 2017 because the First Fives on the field (Luke McAlister and Aaron Cruden) were too shy to call thw drop call at the end. Spend a hour a week practising this call and its execution. We expect the ABs to win.
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