Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October
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Aaron Smith should walk away with NZ rugby player of the year.
Thought coles was excellent too.
Pity SA not in RC.
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@MrDenmore said in Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October:
All Blacks seriously need some succession planning at halfback. The gap between Aaron Smith and the rest is that big.
Return to the status quo. Halfback has always been our weakest position historically.
It's been a treat having a Rolls Royce halfback for the better part of a decade after always being outmatched.
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Highlights with the Oz commentary -
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@Billy-Tell said in Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October:
Aaron Smith should walk away with NZ rugby player of the year.
Thought coles was excellent too.
Pity SA not in RC.
This, A Smith was excellent but when Smith is excellent you can almost guarantee the forwards were the reason. So props to the engine room.
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Sevu Reece was excited about the win!
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If someone just stitched together all the man love shown after scoring, and winning it would do very well on certain websites. 🤔
I like seeing the raw emotion and how much it means, but after Rieko scores I think TJ jumps up into his arms with legs wrapped around, in isolation that is very strange from two adult men. But with sport it is completely normal. Funny how these things happen. -
@taniwharugby that's bloody awesome.
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@Bones some good stuff on IG, Jordan interviews Clarke who has glasses like Doc when he returns from the future and Clarke said he got them from the $2 shop to protect his eyes expecting spraying champagne about everywhere if we won.
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@taniwharugby Yeah the team culture looks strong, I haven't seen any footage from the Wallabies changing room but I suspect they were enforcing Covids 1.5m rules.
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@chimoaus said in Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October:
@Billy-Tell said in Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October:
Aaron Smith should walk away with NZ rugby player of the year.
Thought coles was excellent too.
Pity SA not in RC.
This, A Smith was excellent but when Smith is excellent you can almost guarantee the forwards were the reason. So props to the engine room.
Why were the forwards good? A good halfback can drive a forward pack.
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@booboo said in Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October:
@chimoaus said in Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October:
@Billy-Tell said in Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October:
Aaron Smith should walk away with NZ rugby player of the year.
Thought coles was excellent too.
Pity SA not in RC.
This, A Smith was excellent but when Smith is excellent you can almost guarantee the forwards were the reason. So props to the engine room.
Why were the forwards good? A good halfback can drive a forward pack.
Like in Wellington?
Smith like all HBs struggle with slow messy ball, if the forwards don't perform the HB often struggles. He was his normal excellent self because the forwards performed. -
@booboo yea you can hear Smith driving his forwards last night, thought he was more vocal than normal, or just louder....
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In the sheds post match -
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@taniwharugby said in Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October:
@booboo yea you can hear Smith driving his forwards last night, thought he was more vocal than normal, or just louder....
Better microphones
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Man ANZ is a terrible stadium for fans.
The food is a fucking disgrace. Every single outlet sells the same shit - pies, chips, and hotdogs. You couldn't even get a pizza if you wanted, let alone some noodles or sushi or a decent burger. Imagine all the Asian cafe/restaurant owners who would love a crack at setting up in one of the kitchen to roll out awesome noodle/rice dishes at HT, could all be pre-prepared, pre-ordered, pre-paid for easy collection at HT.
At HT I queued up at one of the coffee bars for 15mins to get the kids a hot chocolate, only to be told they don't do hot chocolates. Only positive there was that I missed the Wallaby try, and if I didn't see it it didn't happen... 👊
I see the attendance was only 26k, thats pretty disappointing even given the weather.
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Always hard to read a game from the end of the field, but it was illustrative to watch the number of times we were short on defence e.g. Karl T's try was everyone running open like a bunch of U8s chasing the ball, leaving 2 guys to defend the AB forward pack.
Should be mentioned that the rain had pretty much stopped before kickoff, so despite a bit of surface water (excellent drainage at ANZ) these conditions would be less than challenging for professionals - I mean look at the number of stupid offloads we tried, so obviously we were confident to try that
AB game plan was smart - direct play up the middle of the field and put in some short kicks to test the back three, and it worked because DHP's injury turned him into an even slower cart horse with tits for hands. Koroibete continues to be sub-par with ball in hand tho he put on some nice hits.
I don't know whether it was just a bit of hope after we showed some fire in NZ, or the fact I spent money on tickets, but I'm pretty flat after that loss. Yes I realise we've had to chop and change a few personnel but that doesn't alter the fact our mostly unchanged forward pack for 3 games got beaten silly.
And to be clear: the cupboard is bare. That is pretty much all we've got in terms of personnel available and Rennie just has to work with that. His comment about being 6 weeks into a 4 year plan is solid IMHO, but we might be lucky to squeak 2 wins against Argentina this year if we're lucky.
Therefore, simply changing personnel is not going to improve results.
@Bones said in Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October:
Oh that video reminded me of a comment I forgot to make.
Was there anyone left that Nic White didn't try to fight?
Clearly concussed after the elbow t the head. He probably should have been taken off for HIA if he was punchier than usual.
