Blues 2022
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@daffy-jaffy those two just look so wrong in Blue haha. Good banter though, I reckon Riccitelli joining the Blues was purely a golf decision.
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@canes4life said in Blues 2022:
Good banter though, I reckon Riccitelli joining the Blues was purely a golf decision.
I'll be interested to see if Soane Vikena puts some pressure on Riccitelli this year. Vikena has barely played any top class rugby but has really flashed in his few opportunities for Auckland and the Blues. Still just a pup too (20 years old).
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@kiwimurph I haven't seen much of Vikena tbh but he was a beast for the Blues under 20s last year. No need to rush him, I'm sure he'll get plenty of minutes off the pine this year.
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@tim I've never seen anything from riccitelli for me to think he is above mitre10
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@muddyriver If he was supposed to there for on field experience or leadership, then it wasn't easy to see.
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He missed the original tackle on Jules that got the Canes well out of their 22 and going forward.
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@muddyriver Riccitelli doesn't have a high ceiling but he does have the odd game where he absolutely rips into things. I think he's one of those guys you kind of have to make angry before the game starts. He does his core roles well but he's probably more Owen Franks than Dane Coles when it comes to mobility. He's definitely good enough to be a third choice hooker
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@canes4life so someone needs to disrespect his name...
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@canes4life said in Blues 2022:
He's definitely good enough to be a third choice hooker
I've been saying for a few years that we don't have enough SR quality hookers in NZ. The 5 NZ sides need 15 hookers, we have ~10 goodish ones
So yeah he's probably good enough to be the third hooker in a squad but that isn't a high bar
The issue at the moment is he's the Blues 2nd hooker. I'll be a lot happier when Vikena passes him in the rankings and Riccitelli is out of the match day 23
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@duluth said in Blues 2022:
@canes4life said in Blues 2022:
He's definitely good enough to be a third choice hooker
I've been saying for a few years that we don't have enough SR quality hookers in NZ. The 5 NZ sides need 15 hookers, we have ~10 goodish ones
So yeah he's probably good enough to be the third hooker in a squad but that isn't high bar
The issue at the moment is he's the Blues 2nd hooker. I'll be a lot happier when Vikena passes him in the rankings and Riccitelli is out of the match day 23
I find it pretty surprising that we have such a huge focus on scrums but (seemingly) less on line outs, and especially throwing etc. Is there a high performance coach for lineouts / 2s?
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@chris-b said in Blues 2022:
@tim An amusing idea by McKendry. I can't read it and had to refer to Wikipedia to recall all 10. I'd guess something like:
Henry
Sloane
Hunter
MacDonald
Lam
Nucifora
Umaga
Kirwan
Oliver
RowlandsUmaga too high, statistically one of the worst if not the worst.
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@kirwan Actually - that's the one I'm most interested in - who McKendry put higher - Umaga or Kirwan?
I think poor old Jed Rowlands is pretty much bound to come out bottom, especially because he was a long time ago (but had a good team and lost them), and Frank is dead so won't get upset at his ranking.
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@chris-b said in Blues 2022:
@kirwan Actually - that's the one I'm most interested in - who McKendry put higher - Umaga or Kirwan?
I think poor old Jed Rowlands is pretty much bound to come out bottom, especially because he was a long time ago (but had a good team and lost them), and Frank is dead so won't get upset at his ranking.
Look at the stats Duluth put together, Umaga lost more games than Kirwan and has the worst winning percentage against Kiwi teams - and winning isn't that the point of sport?
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@kirwan said in Blues 2022:
@chris-b said in Blues 2022:
@tim An amusing idea by McKendry. I can't read it and had to refer to Wikipedia to recall all 10. I'd guess something like:
Henry
Sloane
Hunter
MacDonald
Lam
Nucifora
Umaga
Kirwan
Oliver
RowlandsUmaga too high, statistically one of the worst if not the worst.
Umaga/Kirwan are the bottom who cares about splitting them. Three years of failure for both of them. Then the single season coaches who hit similar lows - Rowlands and Oliver
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@kirwan Though the Blues Wiki page has Tana mildly more successful overall. Duluth's probably right.
I'm a bit swayed by watching JK occasionally on Reunion. Going off on wild tangents at the drop of a hat. If he was anything like that as a coach (and I suspect he probably was) the players would have had no idea what they were supposed to be doing.
Tana might get a bit of redemption on Leon's coattails.
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@muddyriver I’m with you on that , don’t like to be critical of a player who has played at a level that I could only dream about but I can’t help think the Canes would have kept Riccitelli if they really rated him.
There’s a couple of players I have seen running around in the last few seasons for me personally that I would have converted into hookers .
