Bledisloe 1
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@ACT-Crusader said in Bledisloe 1:
@WillieTheWaiter a bit of walking around too from De Groot last night.
I think some have underestimated the physicality of the OZ forwards. Valentini I thought was very good. Samu definitely was a step up physically than the young openside that played against the Boks.
Samu, Veletini (arguably the 2nd and 3rd best players on the field) and Leota had big impacts (admittedly Leota not for too long). Once Cane went off absolutely none of our loose forwards could go with them.
Even McReight was a pest when he got on. The Aussie loosies were really fucking goodI think our tight 5 shaded them though, obviously at hooker, but i thought our props were good as well. Locks definitely beat their opposite numbers.
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@WillieTheWaiter similarly Dalton and Sotutu, come in basically cold and get grilled for being out of form.
Rebuilding / development this year has been poor...seems hanging on by a thread has put that aspect on the back burner.
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@taniwharugby said in Bledisloe 1:
@WillieTheWaiter similarly Dalton and Sotutu, come in basically cold and get grilled for being out of form.
Rebuilding / development this year has been poor...seems hanging on by a thread has put that aspect on the back burner.
lol, and if they made changes every week they would have been absolutely slaughtered for not trying to build combinations.
Our loosies got owned last night. But if we step back, we were without the first choice 6 and 8, and then lost the 7 early as well. three new loose forwards all at once. No coach would have any expectation of losing everyone in one area at the same time.
And then last night we also lost both of our 12s at the same time. That's quite a lot of shit to overcome at once. And we still won!
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@Kiwiwomble I regularly mute match threads for that reason. Often too negative and too many broken records. Not enough celebrating good things.
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@Rancid-Schnitzel I just about woke the kids when he did that. He had link players on both sides and went with the dumb, solo option. We've have applauded him if it had come off, but it was such a low percentage play.
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@Stargazer said in Bledisloe 1:
@Kiwiwomble I regularly mute match threads for that reason. Often too negative and too many broken records. Not enough celebrating good things.
definitely, havent been in a match thread during a game this season i think, enjoy the 80min much more, just really interesting reading through the next day
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@Rancid-Schnitzel said in Bledisloe 1:
I'm still scratching my head about Sotutu's kick. Wtf was he thinking there? He was surrounded by support. He should go the way of 2008 Lauaki for that alone.
But obviously it was incredibly concerning how that 15 vs 13 advantage wasn't exploited. Schoolboy teams would do a better job than that. Add the sometimes shocking defence out wide and you wonder what they're actually doing in training.
Anyone with that haircut has questionable decision making across other facets of life to be fair.
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Set piece stats are interesting:
Scrum - OZ 5/6; ABs 2/5
Lineout - OZ 12/14; ABs 13/13.So overall both sides lost 3 of their set piece ball. Good to see us challenging every one of their lineouts.
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@ACT-Crusader said in Bledisloe 1:
Good to see us challenging every one of their lineouts
couple of those "closing the gap" penalties were harsh i thought considering what the Wallabies were doing on the other side. at least we were having ac rack though
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@mariner4life Valentini has a very high work rate on both sides of the ball. Led the Aussies in tackles and number of ball carries. And for a guy that is heavily involved at the breakdown and tackle he has very good discipline.
One of the best games I’ve seen Samu play ever. He was playing a more hybrid role than what Hooper generally plays, but yeah he was up there in terms of the best on the park.
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@ACT-Crusader i honestly didn't think Samu had that in him, he was not a name i was worried about pre-game
I thought even 12 months ago Valetini was not robust enough at test level. He's definitely improved in that area, and his test game now looks like his Super game used to. Hugely improved player.
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Well now that I have had time to digest it all it was quite a test match. Some great skills from both, some ordinary skills from both. I am all for referees having what might be called their different interpretations or styles, wouldn’t rugby become mundane if it was all so predictable?
The final result? Obviously happy to have secured the Bledisloe for another year but can’t help feeling a bit disappointed overall, firstly that we won in “controversial” circumstances that will be talked about for ages but mostly disappointed that at 31-13 we took our foot of the gas. Good AB teams would have taken no prisoners and turned that into a 30+ point winning margin.
The tension now grows for Eden Park where we will see some different players on the field, at least Ardie will be back, and whether Foster can maintain the EP hoodoo.
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@mariner4life go back and read the thread, people bitching about DP and HS.
Just saying they come in cold, and get grilled.
Well there needs to be development, don't expect weekly changes, but they can still develop without doing that.
What has happened this year is the result of 2+ years of ignoring issues in front of you.
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@Crucial Yup agree on the Clarke theory on him being told to shoot up. Its a very high risk strategy especially with our widest man being given the task of doing it and I also don't like it as its asking a hell of a lot from Rieko Ioane to cover in behind him with the sweeping player (usually Mo'unga), and by that time, the support runners have already swept around which creates the overlap anyway.
The risk is certainly higher than the reward in the strategy.
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@taniwharugby said in Bledisloe 1:
@mariner4life go back and read the thread, people bitching about DP and HS.
Just saying they come in cold, and get grilled.
Well there needs to be development, don't expect weekly changes, but they can still develop without doing that.
What has happened this year is the result of 2+ years of ignoring issues in front of you.
i think we are also a victim of our structure. Basically, from mid-June, if you are not playing in a test, you have nothing meaningful to play. And with all due respect, NPC rugby is a glorified club game compared to test rugby.
So basically the first choice guys play, everyone else goes cold.
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@mariner4life although I think this year the starting 15 has been changed less than in many, many years...
This isn't really due to how well they were playing, was a combination of lack of choices in squad and clinging to jobs.
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@mariner4life its a paradox though isn;t it, NPC quality drops at least partially because the best players dont play in it
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@Stargazer said in Bledisloe 1:
@Kiwiwomble I regularly mute match threads for that reason. Often too negative and too many broken records. Not enough celebrating good things.
Interesting you say that when you have been one of the most vocal critics of Beauden when he plays, constantly searching for negatives even when he's played well.
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@No-Quarter Your memory is wrong. I haven't posted much in match threads this year, and that includes posts about BB.
