Blues v Brumbies
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Getting another thread going for the Saturday 7pm game this weekend at Eden Park.
Round 3, Blues have 10 points. A BP win puts us right in the box seat to make the finals... but these Brumbies are a decent side. Getting 3 more tries will be hard.
Things to work on for the Blues: stop dropping the ball, play to your strengths in the forwards, and play smart. Make sure your scrum is rock solid, defend mauls really really well. Stop giving away stupid penalties.
Brumbies: ... haven't seen them for so long... are they still a 'scrum for penalties, drive mauls over the line' team?
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@nzzp said in Blues Brumbies:
Getting another thread going for the Saturday 7pm game this weekend at Eden Park.
Round 3, Blues have 10 points. A BP win puts us right in the box seat to make the finals... but these Brumbies are a decent side. Getting 3 more tries will be hard.
Things to work on for the Blues: stop dropping the ball, play to your strengths in the forwards, and play smart. Make sure your scrum is rock solid, defend mauls really really well. Stop giving away stupid penalties.
Brumbies: ... haven't seen them for so long... are they still a 'scrum for penalties, drive mauls over the line' team?
They want to be. The Chiefs took away their scrum and threw some strong maul drives in themselves to take away the Ponies' confidence in that area.
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@nzzp said in Blues Brumbies:
Brumbies: ... haven't seen them for so long... are they still a 'scrum for penalties, drive mauls over the line' team?
They have offered more on attack this year. The maul is still strong though and that's where the majority of their tries come from.
Scrum appears to have gone backwards though.So far they've played one good half of rugby out of four in SR TT. If they replicate that second half in Christchurch for 80mins they are a reasonable chance.
Blues soft penalties/getting on the wrong side of the ref, leading to attacking lineouts is the biggest concern IMO
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@duluth said in Blues v Brumbies:
@nzzp said in Blues Brumbies:
Brumbies: ... haven't seen them for so long... are they still a 'scrum for penalties, drive mauls over the line' team?
They have offered more on attack this year. The maul is still strong though and that's where the majority of their tries come from.
Scrum appears to have gone backwards though.So far they've played one good half of rugby out of four in SR TT. If they replicate that second half in Christchurch for 80mins they are a reasonable chance.
Blues soft penalties/getting on the wrong side of the ref, leading to attacking lineouts is the biggest concern IMO
Given the strength of the Blues scrum, I’d say the last one is pretty crucial. Not giving the Brumbies many opportunities to kick to the corner and maul for tries seems to be the key to dealing with them effectively.
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@frank said in Blues v Brumbies:
So will Leon be putting Zarn Sullivan at 10 and someone else at 15?
You would hope that if his future is at 10, that they would give him an NPC playing there before pushing him straight to it at this level. Black hasn’t been that bad and Zarn is doing well at 15.
For next year, staying at 15 could be his best bet too, as BB has indicated that he wants to play 10. He’s looked ok there too except for a terrible intercept pass in the J-league final, that ended up being the difference between the sides.
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@gt12 said in Blues v Brumbies:
You would hope that if his future is at 10, that they would give him an NPC playing there before pushing him straight to it at this level. Black hasn’t been that bad and Zarn is doing well at 15.
agree, but I think let's just let him succeed at 15 before pushing him into 10. As you say, BB back next year, Zarn looks to me to have more upside at 15 than the others right now (noting we don't know how or where RTS will slot in and perform)
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Yes discipline will be the key for the Blues. They need to avoid giving away penalties that result in lineout drive opportunities.
I'm not that impressed by Black currently but for now best to keep Zarn at 15 he's doing wonderfully well there and in a lot of ways bailing Black out.
Brumbies are tricky in that coming off probably their worst performance of the year surely they'll bounce back.
If I was Brumbies i'd give their bench 9 a start (if White isn't available) as he made a really big difference when he came on - his style far more suited to getting Brumbies on the front foot.
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@kiwimurph said in Blues v Brumbies:
I'm not that impressed by Black currently but for now best to keep Zarn at 15 he's doing wonderfully well there and in a lot of ways bailing Black out.
Still a few areas I need to see Zarn shine in. I haven't yet seen him read tricky situations on defence, make good tackles, or really direct the defence.
That said, the kicking touch he showed against the Tahs was exceptional. Two or three great kicks to the corner that swing you straight into attack. Really nice work with people around defending. His passing was exceptional. You could see the pace of the passes he threw off each hand were clearly a step up on most in the backline - and that creates time and space for folk outside him. Very good skill to use when approrpiate.
So far, looks really promising. I'm actually really excited to watch his development
edit: or chime in and drive attacks. Will watch a replay of the wekeend to see what he did, but big upside I think
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@nzzp said in Blues v Brumbies:
@kiwimurph said in Blues v Brumbies:
I'm not that impressed by Black currently but for now best to keep Zarn at 15 he's doing wonderfully well there and in a lot of ways bailing Black out.
Still a few areas I need to see Zarn shine in. I haven't yet seen him read tricky situations on defence, make good tackles, or really direct the defence.
That said, the kicking touch he showed against the Tahs was exceptional. Two or three great kicks to the corner that swing you straight into attack. Really nice work with people around defending. His passing was exceptional. You could see the pace of the passes he threw off each hand were clearly a step up on most in the backline - and that creates time and space for folk outside him. Very good skill to use when approrpiate.
So far, looks really promising. I'm actually really excited to watch his development
edit: or chime in and drive attacks. Will watch a replay of the wekeend to see what he did, but big upside I think
There was great play from Sullivan last week, where he made the last ditch tackle and got a crucial turnover. He has Dagg/Jordie length to his kicks as well, makes such a difference.
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@kiwimurph Another interesting factor - the game will be refereed by former Aussie sevens skipper Damon Murphy -
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@daffy-jaffy yep easily the worst Aussie ref going.
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Did he ref this fixture over in Canberra 2 years ago?
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@african-monkey said in Blues v Brumbies:
Did he ref this fixture over in Canberra 2 years ago?
Yes.
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@african-monkey Lot of bullshit scrum penalties against the Blues that night, IIRC.
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