Final: Blues vs Crusaders
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@taniwharugby said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Jailbreak7 thing was, the Crusaders denied the blues any opportunity to show thier game plan.
It started with the lineout, Whitelock owned it, psyched out Eklund and the blues jumpers, allowing total domination, then everything flowed on from there.
It was a masterclass from the senior players in the saders and Razor, hopefully will give Fozzie some ideas cos the Blues looked overawed like the ABS were at times last year.
I thought the starting point was the rain.
My biggest concern was the Blues speed through the midfield - Ioane and Barrett aided by RTS and Perofeta. The rain shut down opportunities for slick handling to put these guys in any space and the smothering defence took care of the rest.
The lineout starving the Blues of possession and territory obviously a serious factor.
For us pretty much everyone played well or very well - I thought probably one exception who shall remain nameless.
Some of the wet weather handling was phenomenal, but even then we struggled getting the ball wide regularlyInteresting to hear Sam Whitelock giving the credit for the defensive lineout tactics to Strange and Grace.
You have to wonder whether Fozzie might have reconsidered his front row selections if he was picking his team tomorrow.
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@taniwharugby said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
As much as any team doesn't want to rely on one player, the Blues are a different side without Dalton, last week they were exposed, and maybe that started sowing the seeds of doubt, when he came on, it was too late, but you could see the lift in the team.
From an ABs perspective looking forward it was great to see Papali'i make an impact from the bench given that's where he's gonna be (unless they run him at 6), especially factoring in he can't have been 100%.
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@Chris-B said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
You have to wonder whether Fozzie might have reconsidered his front row selections if he was picking his team tomorrow.
That involves a) learning and b) admiting you got it wrong. Considering nothing of the sort was mentioned (for example) post lost to Arg, or just blame last year on the long season, I think there would be little change
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@Chris-B said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@taniwharugby said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Jailbreak7 thing was, the Crusaders denied the blues any opportunity to show thier game plan.
It started with the lineout, Whitelock owned it, psyched out Eklund and the blues jumpers, allowing total domination, then everything flowed on from there.
It was a masterclass from the senior players in the saders and Razor, hopefully will give Fozzie some ideas cos the Blues looked overawed like the ABS were at times last year.
I thought the starting point was the rain.
My biggest concern was the Blues speed through the midfield - Ioane and Barrett aided by RTS and Perofeta. The rain shut down opportunities for slick handling to put these guys in any space and the smothering defence took care of the rest.
The lineout starving the Blues of possession and territory obviously a serious factor.
For us pretty much everyone played well or very well - I thought probably one exception who shall remain nameless.
Some of the wet weather handling was phenomenal, but even then we struggled getting the ball wide regularlyInteresting to hear Sam Whitelock giving the credit for the defensive lineout tactics to Strange and Grace.
You have to wonder whether Fozzie might have reconsidered his front row selections if he was picking his team tomorrow.
Pretty fair, and I sort of alluded to that as well. In dryer weather, our backs could build pressure to respond to any issues in the forwards. The last two games have blunted that with poor weather and needed to rely more on set piece.
An area to improve, and we’ve been seeing incremental improvements each year. Blues are still a good team, Crusaders were better on the night, and in those conditions.
Of course it bloody blue skys and lovely today. FFS.
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@Machpants said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Chris-B said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
You have to wonder whether Fozzie might have reconsidered his front row selections if he was picking his team tomorrow.
That involves a) learning and b) admiting you got it wrong. Considering nothing of the sort was mentioned (for example) post lost to Arg, or just blame last year on the long season, I think there would be little change
To be fair - he's dropped Lomax and De Groot from last year's propping group.
We'll have to wait till the next waypoint - selecting the team for the Rugby championship - to see whether he's going to reconsider.
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@Nepia said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Kirwan said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
Blues are still a good team
This is the key, although reading back through this thread you'd think this was the worst Blues side to ever lace up their boots.
A few posters were saving up their gripes from getting their asses handed to them from the Blues.
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@Kirwan said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Chris-B said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@taniwharugby said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Jailbreak7 thing was, the Crusaders denied the blues any opportunity to show thier game plan.
It started with the lineout, Whitelock owned it, psyched out Eklund and the blues jumpers, allowing total domination, then everything flowed on from there.
It was a masterclass from the senior players in the saders and Razor, hopefully will give Fozzie some ideas cos the Blues looked overawed like the ABS were at times last year.
I thought the starting point was the rain.
My biggest concern was the Blues speed through the midfield - Ioane and Barrett aided by RTS and Perofeta. The rain shut down opportunities for slick handling to put these guys in any space and the smothering defence took care of the rest.
The lineout starving the Blues of possession and territory obviously a serious factor.
For us pretty much everyone played well or very well - I thought probably one exception who shall remain nameless.
Some of the wet weather handling was phenomenal, but even then we struggled getting the ball wide regularlyInteresting to hear Sam Whitelock giving the credit for the defensive lineout tactics to Strange and Grace.
You have to wonder whether Fozzie might have reconsidered his front row selections if he was picking his team tomorrow.
Pretty fair, and I sort of alluded to that as well. In dryer weather, our backs could build pressure to respond to any issues in the forwards. The last two games have blunted that with poor weather and needed to rely more on set piece.
An area to improve, and we’ve been seeing incremental improvements each year. Blues are still a good team, Crusaders were better on the night, and in those conditions.
Of course it bloody blue skys and lovely today. FFS.
Can you blame the weather though? Crusaders backs still seemed to be able to run and pass well in the same conditions
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@Nevorian said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Kirwan said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Chris-B said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@taniwharugby said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Jailbreak7 thing was, the Crusaders denied the blues any opportunity to show thier game plan.
It started with the lineout, Whitelock owned it, psyched out Eklund and the blues jumpers, allowing total domination, then everything flowed on from there.
It was a masterclass from the senior players in the saders and Razor, hopefully will give Fozzie some ideas cos the Blues looked overawed like the ABS were at times last year.
I thought the starting point was the rain.
My biggest concern was the Blues speed through the midfield - Ioane and Barrett aided by RTS and Perofeta. The rain shut down opportunities for slick handling to put these guys in any space and the smothering defence took care of the rest.
The lineout starving the Blues of possession and territory obviously a serious factor.
For us pretty much everyone played well or very well - I thought probably one exception who shall remain nameless.
Some of the wet weather handling was phenomenal, but even then we struggled getting the ball wide regularlyInteresting to hear Sam Whitelock giving the credit for the defensive lineout tactics to Strange and Grace.
You have to wonder whether Fozzie might have reconsidered his front row selections if he was picking his team tomorrow.
Pretty fair, and I sort of alluded to that as well. In dryer weather, our backs could build pressure to respond to any issues in the forwards. The last two games have blunted that with poor weather and needed to rely more on set piece.
An area to improve, and we’ve been seeing incremental improvements each year. Blues are still a good team, Crusaders were better on the night, and in those conditions.
Of course it bloody blue skys and lovely today. FFS.
Can you blame the weather though? Crusaders backs still seemed to be able to run and pass well in the same conditions
Front foot ball and a huge glut of possession makes a bit of difference.
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@Kirwan said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Nevorian said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Kirwan said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Chris-B said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@taniwharugby said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Jailbreak7 thing was, the Crusaders denied the blues any opportunity to show thier game plan.
It started with the lineout, Whitelock owned it, psyched out Eklund and the blues jumpers, allowing total domination, then everything flowed on from there.
It was a masterclass from the senior players in the saders and Razor, hopefully will give Fozzie some ideas cos the Blues looked overawed like the ABS were at times last year.
I thought the starting point was the rain.
My biggest concern was the Blues speed through the midfield - Ioane and Barrett aided by RTS and Perofeta. The rain shut down opportunities for slick handling to put these guys in any space and the smothering defence took care of the rest.
The lineout starving the Blues of possession and territory obviously a serious factor.
For us pretty much everyone played well or very well - I thought probably one exception who shall remain nameless.
Some of the wet weather handling was phenomenal, but even then we struggled getting the ball wide regularlyInteresting to hear Sam Whitelock giving the credit for the defensive lineout tactics to Strange and Grace.
You have to wonder whether Fozzie might have reconsidered his front row selections if he was picking his team tomorrow.
Pretty fair, and I sort of alluded to that as well. In dryer weather, our backs could build pressure to respond to any issues in the forwards. The last two games have blunted that with poor weather and needed to rely more on set piece.
An area to improve, and we’ve been seeing incremental improvements each year. Blues are still a good team, Crusaders were better on the night, and in those conditions.
Of course it bloody blue skys and lovely today. FFS.
Can you blame the weather though? Crusaders backs still seemed to be able to run and pass well in the same conditions
Front foot ball and a huge glut of possession makes a bit of difference.
I must admit that so called Perofeta knock on in one of the few moments they looked threatening was harsh
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@Nevorian Crusaders did it better - but, Will Jordan for example, was far less of an offensive threat than in dry weather. We were also regularly turning back infield rather than trying to use space wide, because it's too hard to get it there in the wet.
Crusaders had lots of ball, but when the Blues had the ball we were winning the collisions and knocking them backwards - forcing errors.
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@Chris-B said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Machpants said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Chris-B said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
You have to wonder whether Fozzie might have reconsidered his front row selections if he was picking his team tomorrow.
That involves a) learning and b) admiting you got it wrong. Considering nothing of the sort was mentioned (for example) post lost to Arg, or just blame last year on the long season, I think there would be little change
To be fair - he's dropped Lomax and De Groot from last year's propping group.
We'll have to wait till the next waypoint - selecting the team for the Rugby championship - to see whether he's going to reconsider.
Well he had to drop some players from the mega squad of 2021, and even if DG was unfit, I'd rather have him in and working hard than Karl. Who is in the squad for his scrummaging? Showed it last night!
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@Kirwan said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Nepia said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Kirwan said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
Blues are still a good team
This is the key, although reading back through this thread you'd think this was the worst Blues side to ever lace up their boots.
A few posters were saving up their gripes from getting their asses handed to them from the Blues.
Are you having a crack at Chiefs supporters? I'd guess that most of us were on your side actually.
Pointing out the shite play from some your key players that Blues fans had been banging on about not being selected for the ABs was pretty fair comment and hardly sour grapes.
Chiefs forwards/Blues backs would have been awesome -
@Machpants said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Chris-B said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Machpants said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Chris-B said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
You have to wonder whether Fozzie might have reconsidered his front row selections if he was picking his team tomorrow.
That involves a) learning and b) admiting you got it wrong. Considering nothing of the sort was mentioned (for example) post lost to Arg, or just blame last year on the long season, I think there would be little change
To be fair - he's dropped Lomax and De Groot from last year's propping group.
We'll have to wait till the next waypoint - selecting the team for the Rugby championship - to see whether he's going to reconsider.
Well he had to drop some players from the mega squad of 2021, and even if DG was unfit, I'd rather have him in and working hard than Karl. Who is in the squad for his scrummaging? Showed it last night!
There's probably more in the DeGroot message than we will be told I reckon. He was an AB last year. Did he piss someone off? Or maybe he was given an ultimatum earlier this season on some targets that he didn't meet.
Cant blame the selection team if a line gets drawn in the sand and a player doesnt hit targets. -
Stating the obvious but the final showed you can have all the strike power you want but if you can't get a platform from the tight five, it is pretty much useless. The game plan was old-school. Pinpoint a weakness (lineouts) and ruthlessly exploit it. Pinpoint strengths (collisions and scrum) and attack them. Take away the platform and the Blues weapons (loosies, backs) are nullified. Was a masterclass yet so simple. Just back to basics which the Crusaders do so well.
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@Old-Samurai-Jack said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
Stating the obvious but the final showed you can have all the strike power you want but if you can't get a platform from the tight five, it is pretty much useless.
Are you talking about the blues or the ABs?
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@Old-Samurai-Jack A bit reminiscent of quite a few Bledisloe tests - especially when the ABs are responding to a loss.
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@Kirwan said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
First off congratulations to the Crusaders, hell of a finals performance and very good coaching/tactics.
Basically came down to the line out, where were completely dominated. Game was lost there, Crusaders could kick everything out and keep the ball and starve us of possession.
Leon will learn from this, and I bet if he had his time again he would start Tucker instead of Robinson. The players really didn’t adjust on the field either, as has been mentioned already, where were the shortened lineouts or jumping at the front?
As the weather turned over the past 4/5 weeks you could see issues at the lineout in a few games. It’s an area we will need to improve a lot.
However, the Blues have been steadily improving each year, and with Patrick coming back next year we have more lineout options and bulk for the scrum.
For the positives, our defence was phenomenal. A real point of difference in previous years. Particularly good on the goal line and the team never gives up.
I see the trolls are out for Akira, again he was great for us, worked hard, moving bodies at the ruck and for those not paying attention to where the Blues put their six , staying in the team pattern. Robinson(at six) and Dalton both stay wide too.
Dalton is the best seven in the country by a mile, Sotutu the best 8, and Akira the best six. Without them, with losing that many lineouts, the Crusaders would put 40 on other teams. It’s a positive for the ABs that they were still so good with the front five being taken apart.
Anyway, was a fun year as a Blues fan, and looking forward to next year.
There’s nothing worse than having a different opinion on how someone played and being labelled a troll for it.
The rest of your post is grand.
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@Billy-Tell said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
@Kirwan said in Final: Blues vs Crusaders:
First off congratulations to the Crusaders, hell of a finals performance and very good coaching/tactics.
Basically came down to the line out, where were completely dominated. Game was lost there, Crusaders could kick everything out and keep the ball and starve us of possession.
Leon will learn from this, and I bet if he had his time again he would start Tucker instead of Robinson. The players really didn’t adjust on the field either, as has been mentioned already, where were the shortened lineouts or jumping at the front?
As the weather turned over the past 4/5 weeks you could see issues at the lineout in a few games. It’s an area we will need to improve a lot.
However, the Blues have been steadily improving each year, and with Patrick coming back next year we have more lineout options and bulk for the scrum.
For the positives, our defence was phenomenal. A real point of difference in previous years. Particularly good on the goal line and the team never gives up.
I see the trolls are out for Akira, again he was great for us, worked hard, moving bodies at the ruck and for those not paying attention to where the Blues put their six , staying in the team pattern. Robinson(at six) and Dalton both stay wide too.
Dalton is the best seven in the country by a mile, Sotutu the best 8, and Akira the best six. Without them, with losing that many lineouts, the Crusaders would put 40 on other teams. It’s a positive for the ABs that they were still so good with the front five being taken apart.
Anyway, was a fun year as a Blues fan, and looking forward to next year.
There’s nothing worse than having a different opinion on how someone played and being labelled a troll for it.
The rest of your post is grand.
Thing with Akira is that despite the good stats he doesn't appear to being adding value at the right place at the right time. Maybe he's doing a Rueben Thorne or something but he seems to disappear for long stretches (which probably causes the negative comments).
Maybe I don't watch him close enough but those stats almost always surprise me.
