Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November
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Haven't had a chance to put my general thoughts together about the game yet.
Is it weird that the loss didn't hurt me as much as it really should? Maybe it was just the crazy nature of the game with multiple cards etc. Maybe it was due to the fact we already have the Bled in the cupboard?
The Good
Akira and his bro, still nuts that they have detractors even when they put in good shifts. Hopefully Akira has more starts in his future and gets the chance to play a whole game. Made some good metres with the ball in hand, his offensive defence was good and he thumped into some rucks. He seemed to be stationed wide (like the Blues did with the Ginga Jesus last year) early on but moved in I assume to get near the ball as the game went on. As I've already mentioned in the match thread/MoTM thread Reiko had to clean up a lot shit.
Whitelock put in another good performance. The young fella looked like he was up to the task again when he came on. With those two, a returning BBBR and Patty T we're looking ok lockwise.
Cane and Ardie, so much debate about these two earlier in the year, they both had decent matches, Ardie started slow whereas Cane seemed to run himself to a stand still.
After weathering the early Oz storm and before Ofa got carded the ABs were actually playing some good constructive rugby. Hopefully they can get back to that.
Wright looked good for the Wallabies. He'll give hope to all non Fijian wings in Australia (TBF he might actually be the only non Fijian wing currently in Oz).
My Aussie mate was happy, he's also a Tahs fan so he does it tough, so I don't begrudge him the odd win. He was sober so wasn't an obnoxious winner which is likely the reason this is in the Good and not the Bad column.
The Bad
The dude who did the Welcome to Country forgetting he was at a rugby match and not a bogan rugby match.
The Red Cards. I think it would have been fine if they were both yellows. I get the whole deterrent thing that @NTA mentioned in the thread but I think at the speed of the game the margins are just too small. I also think the ref balls'd it up when he said Wright wasn't dropping, he clearly was, no matter how slight. The Aussie bloke (can't remember his name, Missing Link Mk II) was having a cracker of a match so that was a big loss for Oz.
Not taking the 3 points at the end of the first half after multiple penalties. Better to go into halftime with scoreboard pressure even if it's 3 and not 7. Black mark against Cane for his captaincy there.
Too many Barretts. BB had an average game which is annoying because RM hasn't really shone yet as a test 10. JB was his usual rocks and diamonds self. SB is confirming he's an actual idiot the more he plays.
TJP. I don't hate him like some do, and have always liked his contrasting style to Smith. But, he's out of form, plain and simple. Weber was out of form in Super rugby, TJP is now. Hopefully it's not a drop off the cliff though.
Reece. He's just shit. Hanson fucked up with his wing choices last year and Foster is continuing with it. Even at his erratic worst Naholo was easily better than this chump. Hell, I think even the crap version of NMS was better.
The Rugby
Mostly dud.
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@Nepia said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
He seemed to be stationed wide early on but moved in I assume to get near the ball as the game went on
GIven he went off aorund 25 mins or so, as the game went on he was watching from the sidelines!!
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@Derpus said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
Cue Fox Sports saying new dawn for Aus rugby and the ABs are poo. Ugh. Can't wait till we sign with 9.
Didn't watch this live and surprised we won - that AB team looked really strong on paper. It's good to know that if the ABs lost their two best halves they'd be in as much strife as Aus are (how fugn bad were TJP and BB?).
How on earth does JBar keep getting picked? I mentioned on here ages ago that i'd never seen him have a good game and got ripped into. He's basically a poor man's Reece Hodge. Long may his tenured selection continue.
Surely you jest? If Hodge didn't take those occasional 70m kicks you wouldn't even know he was on the field. JB had an ordinary game, but he wasn't the only AB unfortunately.
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@Nepia said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
Haven't had a chance to put my general thoughts together about the game yet.
Is it weird that the loss didn't hurt me as much as it really should? Maybe it was just the crazy nature of the game with multiple cards etc. Maybe it was due to the fact we already have the Bled in the cupboard?
The Good
> Akira and his bro, still nuts that they have detractors even when they put in good shifts. Hopefully Akira has more starts in his future and gets the chance to play a whole game. Made some good metres with the ball in hand, his offensive defence was good and he thumped into some rucks. He seemed to be stationed wide (like the Blues did with the Ginga Jesus last year) early on but moved in I assume to get near the ball as the game went on. As I've already mentioned in the match thread/MoTM thread Reiko had to clean up a lot shit.
Whitelock put in another good performance. The young fella looked like he was up to the task again when he came on. With those two, a returning BBBR and Patty T we're looking ok lockwise.
Cane and Ardie, so much debate about these two earlier in the year, they both had decent matches, Ardie started slow whereas Cane seemed to run himself to a stand still.
After weathering the early Oz storm and before Ofa got carded the ABs were actually playing some good constructive rugby. Hopefully they can get back to that.
Wright looked good for the Wallabies. He'll give hope to all non Fijian wings in Australia (TBF he might actually be the only non Fijian wing currently in Oz).
My Aussie mate was happy, he's also a Tahs fan so he does it tough, so I don't begrudge him the odd win. He was sober so wasn't an obnoxious winner which is likely the reason this is in the Good and not the Bad column.
The Bad
The dude who did the Welcome to Country forgetting he was at a rugby match and not a bogan rugby match.
The Red Cards. I think it would have been fine if they were both yellows. I get the whole deterrent thing that @NTA mentioned in the thread but I think at the speed of the game the margins are just too small. I also think the ref balls'd it up when he said Wright wasn't dropping, he clearly was, no matter how slight. The Aussie bloke (can't remember his name, Missing Link Mk II) was having a cracker of a match so that was a big loss for Oz.
Not taking the 3 points at the end of the first half after multiple penalties. Better to go into halftime with scoreboard pressure even if it's 3 and not 7. Black mark against Cane for his captaincy there.
Too many Barretts. BB had an average game which is annoying because RM hasn't really shone yet as a test 10. JB was his usual rocks and diamonds self. SB is confirming he's an actual idiot the more he plays.
TJP. I don't hate him like some do, and have always liked his contrasting style to Smith. But, he's out of form, plain and simple. Weber was out of form in Super rugby, TJP is now. Hopefully it's not a drop off the cliff though.
Reece. He's just shit. Hanson fucked up with his wing choices last year and Foster is continuing with it. Even at his erratic worst Naholo was easily better than this chump. Hell, I think even the crap version of NMS was better.
The Rugby
Mostly dud.
Most of that is down to their personalities I believe
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@NTA said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
Seeing a bit of talk (Rugbypass ratings and on here) about BB and the silly kicking
The same style of short kicking worked last week, and nobody thought it was anything but clever when they were tearing the Wobs a new one
The comment above about things not really changing since Hansen is accurate IMHO.
Similarly, AB fans have been so conditioned to BB pulling off miracle bullshit like lucky bounces and regathers on the sideline that it looks worse when it doesn't come off.
Don't get me wrong: fantastic player. His counterattack is mindblowing at times (when you're not the opposition
) but sometimes his broad skillset simply doesn't come off - like the AB game plan of defending until you get to counterattack.To the Wallaby game plan for a minute: attacking wide from the get go looked like the strategy but it was risky as shit. Like BB's play book not coming off, this is what happened last week as we continually dropped the ball or exposed ourselves to a short defence against a willing counter.
There seemed to be a notable shift as the second half wore on of attacking in close to draw defenders - not that it mattered because we got the job done through the guts and (again: miraculously) didn't drop the ball.
It looked a bit like Perth in that suddenly we looked like a Test rugby side instead of 23 blokes who met in the carpark for a game of touch.
And we still only won by 2.
It was the clearing kicks that were the problem. Moāunga had the ball on a string last week with depth and chasers.
Barrettās kicking was off and put us under pressure last night.
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@Rancid-Schnitzel said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
@Derpus said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
Cue Fox Sports saying new dawn for Aus rugby and the ABs are poo. Ugh. Can't wait till we sign with 9.
Didn't watch this live and surprised we won - that AB team looked really strong on paper. It's good to know that if the ABs lost their two best halves they'd be in as much strife as Aus are (how fugn bad were TJP and BB?).
How on earth does JBar keep getting picked? I mentioned on here ages ago that i'd never seen him have a good game and got ripped into. He's basically a poor man's Reece Hodge. Long may his tenured selection continue.
Surely you jest? If Hodge didn't take those occasional 70m kicks you wouldn't even know he was on the field. JB had an ordinary game, but he wasn't the only AB unfortunately.
To be fair he led a team around the park to beat the ABs a week after they had a record score put on them. Did ya see the wallabies first try? A sweeter chip kick you'll never see.
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@Bones said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
@Rancid-Schnitzel said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
@Derpus said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
Cue Fox Sports saying new dawn for Aus rugby and the ABs are poo. Ugh. Can't wait till we sign with 9.
Didn't watch this live and surprised we won - that AB team looked really strong on paper. It's good to know that if the ABs lost their two best halves they'd be in as much strife as Aus are (how fugn bad were TJP and BB?).
How on earth does JBar keep getting picked? I mentioned on here ages ago that i'd never seen him have a good game and got ripped into. He's basically a poor man's Reece Hodge. Long may his tenured selection continue.
Surely you jest? If Hodge didn't take those occasional 70m kicks you wouldn't even know he was on the field. JB had an ordinary game, but he wasn't the only AB unfortunately.
To be fair he led a team around the park to beat the ABs a week after they had a record score put on them. Did ya see the wallabies first try? A sweeter chip kick you'll never see.
Beauden Barrett would have been looking at that chip kick going "fuck that is almost as arsey a bounce as mine!"
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@NTA said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
@Bones said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
@Rancid-Schnitzel said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
@Derpus said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
Cue Fox Sports saying new dawn for Aus rugby and the ABs are poo. Ugh. Can't wait till we sign with 9.
Didn't watch this live and surprised we won - that AB team looked really strong on paper. It's good to know that if the ABs lost their two best halves they'd be in as much strife as Aus are (how fugn bad were TJP and BB?).
How on earth does JBar keep getting picked? I mentioned on here ages ago that i'd never seen him have a good game and got ripped into. He's basically a poor man's Reece Hodge. Long may his tenured selection continue.
Surely you jest? If Hodge didn't take those occasional 70m kicks you wouldn't even know he was on the field. JB had an ordinary game, but he wasn't the only AB unfortunately.
To be fair he led a team around the park to beat the ABs a week after they had a record score put on them. Did ya see the wallabies first try? A sweeter chip kick you'll never see.
Beauden Barrett would have been looking at that chip kick going "fuck that is almost as arsey a bounce as mine!"
Let's not get carried away. BB's would have bounced directly to the winger to go in untouched.
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Geez I'm surprised at the people climbing into Laumape (apart from @Tim ). Not really sure what he could have done outside the arseclownery that was going on inside him, he was on a beating to nothing. I'd still like to see what he has to offer in a proper team.
One that doesn't have the halfback leaving the ball in the scrum while it's getting mullered or running up to the breakdown and pointing at all the gaps so the opposition can fill them and not releasing the ball until they have.
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While I'm on halfbacks. That setup the Aussies do for box kicks is fucken atrocious and should be stamped out. White picks the ball up for about 5 seconds and fucks about before kicking it, the whole time the ref saying it's still in. It's fucken not!
McDermott didn't even bother with the fakery of rolling it back with his foot and just batted it back with his hands a couple of times.
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Weber's pass was at his wobbly SRA standards the first couple and maybe one or two after but at least he was distributing the ball.
The worst part about Perenara other than his typical mouthy carry on was he'd take so long and then still throw it at someone's ankles and/or behind them.
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@Bones said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
Weber's pass was at his wobbly SRA standards the first couple and maybe one or two after but at least he was distributing the ball.
The worst part about Perenara other than his typical mouthy carry on was he'd take so long and then still throw it at someone's ankles and/or behind them.
I agree Weber still tends to have his 10s reach for a lot of his passes, but at least he gets it out pronto so that said reaching is somewhat mitigated. TJ's ponderous approach to getting the ball out is only made worse by the way his passes tend float and then drop just as whomever is outside is about to grasp.
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@Bones said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
While I'm on halfbacks. That setup the Aussies do for box kicks is fucken atrocious and should be stamped out. White picks the ball up for about 5 seconds and fucks about before kicking it, the whole time the ref saying it's still in. It's fucken not!
Caterpillar ruck is a blight on the game.
However it is still in provided it is under a bound player.
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@Bones said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
Weber's pass was at his wobbly SRA standards the first couple and maybe one or two after but at least he was distributing the ball.
The worst part about Perenara other than his typical mouthy carry on was he'd take so long and then still throw it at someone's ankles and/or behind them.
I thought I was watching late career Weepu last night and the absolute eternity for the ball to come out of the ruck.
The irony was him trying to āspeed upā the play by taking a quick tap, yet it was slow mo from the ruck.
It was just disappointing all round game from TJ. I really hope he bounces back if he gets a shot against the Argies.
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@pakman said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
Anyone know where us UK Ferners can watch 'missing' minutes 54-59?
Hereās a preview
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@NTA said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
@Bones said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:
While I'm on halfbacks. That setup the Aussies do for box kicks is fucken atrocious and should be stamped out. White picks the ball up for about 5 seconds and fucks about before kicking it, the whole time the ref saying it's still in. It's fucken not!
Caterpillar ruck is a blight on the game.
However it is still in provided it is under a bound player.
What, even if you're playing it with your hands and then lifting it?
