Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November
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@antipodean said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:
@voodoo said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:
I feel a bit dirty, but did SB actually go OK at lock tonight?
Yes, excellent game tonight. No niggling, no stupid penalties, just carried and cleaned hard.
Yeah he was awesome.
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There was a lot to like about the All Black game tonight. Patience, options, controlled aggression and set piece work. For all that people complained about the kicking in the first half, it's necessary to stop a rush defence. This sort of work pays off late in the game and it clearly did tonight.
Admittedly the accuracy of the kicks needs work, but it's a valid strategy.
Sam needs to work on his communication with the refs, getting in their mind about what to look at. Perhaps Fitzy could come in as a consultant.
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Relieved that the discipline improved to satisfactory.
Hate the kick pass ( unless Foster is recruiting Dusty Martin)
Clean sheet always good
Miss pick and goes, and backline moves off a lineout - then again my Nana's been gone for 4 years and I miss her too.
Please don't let us make a habit of a decent win only following 2 shithouse defeats
Can't believe I watched Leicester from Ta$man and an off colour Rayasi, only to see 80 minutes of Jordie Barrett being the pinnacle winger of NZ rugby
Nice Akira. Different player without the predisposition to niggle
Take little pride in burglaring the tri nations, if that happens.
TJ is definitely off to Japan, yeah? Good
Cane's papering/plastering business is going to make money in the short term.
Not filled with hope - spent a fortune on counselling to rid me of the "powder dry" ailment/delusion and now there are still rocks under my beach towel this summer
C+ for the AB season
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@antipodean said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:
End of the season and what have we learnt? Akira is clearly the best 6 in New Zealand. Massive effort tonight and my MoTM.
Ardie's athleticism is a huge plus in the final quarter, but Sotutu needs to start.
Will Jordan is a shoe-in for the right wing spot. He has the golden touch Beaudy had.
Long term Rieko is a centre, just needs more time in SR to hone the positional awareness. Some good competition coming through too.
At 12 the coaches need to identiify the type of player they're after because as good as Goodhue is, he doesn't distribute.
Mo'unga is still a flat track bully.
I'm on board with all of that, aside from annointing Reiko at 13. I like him there, but I'm still yet to see anything that cements him above JG or PUJ, or even ALB if we insist on JG at 12.
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@antipodean said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:
There was a lot to like about the All Black game tonight. Patience, options, controlled aggression and set piece work. For all that people complained about the kicking in the first half, it's necessary to stop a rush defence. This sort of work pays off late in the game and it clearly did tonight.
Admittedly the accuracy of the kicks needs work, but it's a valid strategy.
Sam needs to work on his communication with the refs, getting in their mind about what to look at. Perhaps Fitzy could come in as a consultant.
Point taken. Didn’t mind the chip kicks as much but the cross kicks were overused.
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@Canes4life Amazing how out of position Jordan can fill in fine on the wing. Jordie is the biggest imposter ive ever seen in international rugby.
If he played every game at fullback in this tournament he wouldve had the same level of performance as he has on the wing.
At least Dmac has performances at international level to point to prove he can play there.
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@sparky said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:
Akira Ioane. What a player!
Will Jordan. What a player!
Who’d have thought the guys tearing it up in Super rugby over multiple seasons might have been worth selecting for the ABs?
Pity we only got to see them properly in the last game of the season. But hey, we got to see lots of Jordie and Frizzel!
Coaching genius! -
@antipodean said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:
End of the season and what have we learnt? Akira is clearly the best 6 in New Zealand. Massive effort tonight and my MoTM.
Ardie's athleticism is a huge plus in the final quarter, but Sotutu needs to start.
Will Jordan is a shoe-in for the right wing spot. He has the golden touch Beaudy had.
Long term Rieko is a centre, just needs more time in SR to hone the positional awareness. Some good competition coming through too.
At 12 the coaches need to identiify the type of player they're after because as good as Goodhue is, he doesn't distribute.
Mo'unga is still a flat track bully.
Pretty much agree with that except I'd like to see Akira and Will Jordan with a few more tests under their belts before we nail them down in the 6 & 14 slots.
Akira's attitude change has been awesome. Huge credit to him and also the coaching staff
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:
@antipodean said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:
End of the season and what have we learnt? Akira is clearly the best 6 in New Zealand. Massive effort tonight and my MoTM.
Ardie's athleticism is a huge plus in the final quarter, but Sotutu needs to start.
Will Jordan is a shoe-in for the right wing spot. He has the golden touch Beaudy had.
Long term Rieko is a centre, just needs more time in SR to hone the positional awareness. Some good competition coming through too.
At 12 the coaches need to identiify the type of player they're after because as good as Goodhue is, he doesn't distribute.
Mo'unga is still a flat track bully.
Pretty much agree with that except I'd like to see Akira and Will Jordan with a few more tests under their belts before we nail them down in the 6 & 14 slots.
Akira's attitude change has been awesome. Huge credit to him and also the coaching staff
Goodhue doesn’t distribute? He is far and away the best distributor in the backline.
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@Stag said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:
At the end of the day the Pumas have scored 1 try in 240 minutes of rugby. Mostly sound on defence but they have still conceded 7 tries while being absolutely clueless on attack.
And had their greatest game of rugby ever, so I don't think they'll worry that 1 try is framed among that and a helluva effort vs aus
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Huge, huge improvement in the tight five with SB there!
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@kev said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:
@Victor-Meldrew said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:
@antipodean said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:
End of the season and what have we learnt? Akira is clearly the best 6 in New Zealand. Massive effort tonight and my MoTM.
Ardie's athleticism is a huge plus in the final quarter, but Sotutu needs to start.
Will Jordan is a shoe-in for the right wing spot. He has the golden touch Beaudy had.
Long term Rieko is a centre, just needs more time in SR to hone the positional awareness. Some good competition coming through too.
At 12 the coaches need to identiify the type of player they're after because as good as Goodhue is, he doesn't distribute.
Mo'unga is still a flat track bully.
Pretty much agree with that except I'd like to see Akira and Will Jordan with a few more tests under their belts before we nail them down in the 6 & 14 slots.
Akira's attitude change has been awesome. Huge credit to him and also the coaching staff
Goodhue doesn’t distribute? He is far and away the best distributor in the backline.
I must be watching someone else, seems to hit it up 2 or 3 times for ever pass he makes
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@Kiwiwomble I can't even remember him passing. He gives his all but his all is half of what it was last season
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@Old-Samurai-Jack said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:
Huge, huge improvement in the tight five with SB there!
True. The tight forwards made us happy today
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Concerns:
everything I said they should change that they did change was a success: apart from the kicks, and they kept JB at 14 and JG at 12 and Sotutu on the bench (but hey I like Ardie) and they still bench the wrong players at the wrong times. Tis a concern because I expect to be wrong (I am only a fan after all). But we have to keep some of that Foster vision so I understand Coles on the wing (never saw that before), or cross kicks from Barrett to Barrett (wow, don't stop a good thing, or a bad thing).
Good to see SB not doing stupid stuff as he is a hard worker, but am alarmed we have Argies under the pump and do stupid things, get 1 yellow card, they don't ?! I thought we were working on discipline??!
I'm not sure Lomax is ready for AB level and Taylor should know better than risk, well, that just was not needed. And he was a top hooker, what has happened?
Most alarmingly, while some of the old heads (Sammy W, Moody, Cane, Smith) are still great team men and hardworkers, the most skilled players are the new guys (Akira, Sotutu, Jordan, Clarke) and our 10s have trouble with the basics.
Richie has done some great try-saving tackles, kicked well, and played unbelievably in one game (and BB did well as well) but he was supposed to play behind dominant packs (only). Well, they were fairly dominant tonight but he did not play well. His running etc were badly judged.
So apart from half-hearted selections, bad bench timings, and inflexible tactics (good to kick it, but sometimes), and not being able to improve the skills of AB backs, that is a (clenched teeth) pass mark from me for the coaching. They even taught their forwards to move forwards, which is something.
I am concerned with how passive Cane seems to be with refs (we are losing in the getting the ref onside battle) but I don't think captaincy is the biggest problem. Tactics. And not finding our best players until the end of the season.
Although Foster did select at least one player out of position who has played alright: Will 'cheesecake' Jordan. Looks like an AB to me.
