Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11
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@Crazy-Horse Aaron Smith does have a habit of trying to do too much, when his first role should be give the ball to the 10. He box-kicked heaps from our 22 when I would've preferred he give it to RM. Maybe Nugget is the issue?
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@Victor-Meldrew Agree with most here, except for Dmac, he needs to go.
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@westcoastie said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@Crazy-Horse Aaron Smith does have a habit of trying to do too much, when his first role should be give the ball to the 10. He box-kicked heaps from our 22 when I would've preferred he give it to RM. Maybe Nugget is the issue?
Maybe Smith wasn’t liking RMs option taking?
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
.RM was awful from what I saw. He looked like a rabbit it the headlights at times. If BB isn't back, DMac at 10 and RM on the bench. Gotta be an improvement from what I saw.
🤮
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@Stargazer said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@Tim I wouldn't look at Rugbypass for stats. ESPN stats are usually better.
For all the domination the Wallabies had, and as well as they went, they still only scored 16. We can definitely do a heap better for the hit-out.
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@Kirwan said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@Crazy-Horse said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
I am going to defend RM a little here. It wasn't him who couldn't take the high ball in the swirling wind, it wasn't him who couldn't place the ball properly at try time and it wasn't him that conceded a try through a bad read on defence. That penalty where he failed to find touch was poor, but RM is prone to that. He is not alone there, even Carter managed to do that on a regular basis.
Those that say he can't operate behind anything other than a dominant pack are living in the past. The Crusader pack has not been dominant recently and he has still managed to win games for them. I am hoping it's a matter of time until things click for him at test level.
AB woes go deeper than RM. They stem from the inability to master the rush defence. It's been years since the BIL showed how to beat the ABs and we have yet to find a way to consistently counter it.
Plenty of players were off their game, but RM was one of them. Smith said after the game that they were guilty of not kicking for position enough.
Ten needs to assess the game, conditions, etc and move the field around the park. He came up tactically short, was throwing away possession with miracle balls, and his basic passing was poor (behind close running forwards).
Someone was celebrating his tackle on the winger, and was good. But he was being hidden on the wing again.
When we needed him to dictate the game he disappeared. That’s what people mean about needing front foot ball. On attack he’s very good, it’s just everything else!
I was in the RM camp last year, but I want BB back at 10 despite the fact I think he's a better rugby player than 10. RM just didn't seem to do any of the stuff he does for the Crusaders at test level.
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@Kirwan said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@westcoastie said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@Crazy-Horse Aaron Smith does have a habit of trying to do too much, when his first role should be give the ball to the 10. He box-kicked heaps from our 22 when I would've preferred he give it to RM. Maybe Nugget is the issue?
Maybe Smith wasn’t liking RMs option taking?
Maybe. And then we get into a big philosophical debate, who do we want to run our game? the 10? the 9?
Does Sam Cane need to see this and say "oi Nuggie, just give the ball to Richie. Hes our 10"
Aaron Smith was top-3 on the park for us tonight, but he does get a touch over-excited from time to time, and tries to do too much, or takes too much on. He also hasn't played heaps with RM, whereas hes played plenty with Beaudy - so they should look a better pair. -
@Kirwan said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@westcoastie said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@Crazy-Horse Aaron Smith does have a habit of trying to do too much, when his first role should be give the ball to the 10. He box-kicked heaps from our 22 when I would've preferred he give it to RM. Maybe Nugget is the issue?
Maybe Smith wasn’t liking RMs option taking?
Who knows, but for much of the game it looked like RM didn't get much of a chance to make decisions because we didn't have the damn ball.
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@voodoo said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
.RM was awful from what I saw. He looked like a rabbit it the headlights at times. If BB isn't back, DMac at 10 and RM on the bench. Gotta be an improvement from what I saw.
🤮
Maybe, but he's performed OK and has Test experiencee there and who else is there?
With the Bled on the line do we risk another performance from RM like tonight's or risk a relative rookie like Josh Ione or Otere Black?
Oh, hang on, Fozzie could always play Jordie at 10......
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@Crazy-Horse said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@Kirwan said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@westcoastie said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@Crazy-Horse Aaron Smith does have a habit of trying to do too much, when his first role should be give the ball to the 10. He box-kicked heaps from our 22 when I would've preferred he give it to RM. Maybe Nugget is the issue?
Maybe Smith wasn’t liking RMs option taking?
Who knows, but for much of the game it looked like RM didn't get much of a chance to make decisions because we didn't have the damn ball.
And when we did Aaron Smith box kicked it away
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Man I hope Foster picks the same starting XV next week. The Fern will really come alive.
At least we aren’t in 2016 and the Fern talking about rugby being boring because the ABs keep winning and Fitzy and other jokers saying AB dominance is not good for rugby.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@voodoo said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
.RM was awful from what I saw. He looked like a rabbit it the headlights at times. If BB isn't back, DMac at 10 and RM on the bench. Gotta be an improvement from what I saw.
🤮
Maybe, but he's performed OK and has Test experiencee there and who else is there?
With the Bled on the line do we risk another performance from RM like tonight's or risk a relative rookie like Josh Ione or Otere Black?
Oh, hang on, Fozzie could always play Jordie at 10......
I hear you that stocks are thin or untested beyond these guys, but I think we have seen enough of RM and DMac to know that RM is the better option, despite a poor performance tonight.
As someone said a while back, DMac could actually be an excellent backup 9. And maybe cover 10 at a stretch for a short period [Edit: fixed for missed words]. But not a starter at either.
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Been thinking, Foster must be working on some genius midfield innovation to beat the rush defence.
Probably sounds a bit obvious and simple, nor am I sure how it’s supposed to exactly work or look, but he must be looking for Goodhue to bring the accuracy of how he plays at centre in a spot, and for Reiko to use his step and gas to get on the outside his rushing opposite?
Who bloody knows, I’m probably just clutching at straws.
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@chimoaus said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
@hydro11 If only Stransky had played like RM
It's not really apples with apples though. In a KO game there is more incentive to kick the drop goal because you always have extra time.
Edit: biggest difference is probably just that Mounga isn't as good at kicking drop goals as Stransky was - plus the wind.
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@ACT-Crusader said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
Man I hope Foster picks the same starting XV next week. The Fern will really come alive.
At least we aren’t in 2016 and the Fern talking about rugby being boring because the ABs keep winning and Fitzy and other jokers saying AB dominance is not good for rugby.
It might just make for a lot of short posts before the game; there’s only so many variations on “what is that cretin doing now?” to post 😊
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@NTA said in Bledisloe One: Wellington, October 11:
Losing the Bledisloe would be a fairly major KPI failure - enough to warrant sacking
What happened to making it interesting?
Interesting is for Art critics and Sydney Barista bois
The Bledisloe is Win or GTFO as far as the majority of NZ rugby aficionados are concerned. Athletic Park 96 is still the defining Wellington game for many of us. -
