Japan v All Blacks
-
@taniwharugby said in Japan v All Blacks:
@broughie I'm not sure that's quite what he saying.
I think it is perfectly fine to watch sports to make you happy, and therefore if the game you love is no longer the game you love, it is OK to not be happy with it...but if it makes you unhappy to watch, that's different.
I still enjoy watching club rugby and npc, but something is not quite right at the top, sure playing shit ain't helping.
I don't watch the ABs as much now cos I don't get the enjoyment any more, but I still get it watching lower levels.
So my love of the game is still there, but my love of the ABs has diminished considerably.
Funny mate, I not quite as excited over test rugby as I am over NPC or club rugby. I am no less an All Blacks fan, have always been and will always be a one eyed supporter, the problem with test rugby (and Super up to a point) is the game has gone too professional I think, we spend too much time looking at replays from TMOs,, the players are becoming almost robot like in that the game/teams seems to be studied to the minuteth detail (even how players kick and where to hold hands for charge down) and we not seeing the indivudual skill levels that I believe we did in the late 90s-early 2000s when we seemed to watch wonderful flowing games attest level.
I say same about most test rugby , there are some great players around, but they just don't seem to be able to use skills etc way tests are played, it's all about suffocating dfence etc. -
I’ve always seen a few things in rugby that make it a bit painful to watch at times , pedantic refs , stop start nature of the game etc , the cards now are my pet hate .
But for me , when my team is going really well, those things are more likely to get pushed into the background, and the joy of winning provides a high .
Here in Melbourne where afl is king , in conversation you will quite often hear people say not a big fan of the game anymore for reasons a , b or c . When you scratch a bit deeper , their team is nearly always completely out of contention.
-
@Stargazer said in Japan v All Blacks:
“Meaningless test”, doesn’t look like it!
I’d be interested in what some of the players thoughts were of the atmosphere and crowd. Through the TV at least it looked amazing and certainly lifted the Japanese. The roar when Tatafu made a charge at the line or when Dearns broke through was huge.
-
@ACT-Crusader said in Japan v All Blacks:
@Stargazer said in Japan v All Blacks:
“Meaningless test”, doesn’t look like it!
I’d be interested in what some of the players thoughts were of the atmosphere and crowd. Through the TV at least it looked amazing and certainly lifted the Japanese. The roar when Tatafu made a charge at the line or when Dearns broke through was huge.
Dearns? Is that the Kiwi kid, son of ex-SF great Tania?
-
@ACT-Crusader said in Japan v All Blacks:
@Stargazer said in Japan v All Blacks:
“Meaningless test”, doesn’t look like it!
I’d be interested in what some of the players thoughts were of the atmosphere and crowd. Through the TV at least it looked amazing and certainly lifted the Japanese. The roar when Tatafu made a charge at the line or when Dearns broke through was huge.
Those two players don't sound Japanese...
-
@Mr-Fish said in Japan v All Blacks:
Interesting reading all the comments about Japan's relative standing in the game at present.
This Brave Blossoms side is currently not as good as the team that All Blacks belted in 2018 (with a junior squad) and likely won't make it out of their pool at next year's World Cup.
So I do think that it's a bit optimistic (for Kiwi supporters) to write off the poor performance as a product of facing a good Japan side. Sure, they tackled their hearts out - but a half decent NZ side should still have the won this match at a canter.
If the ABs have had played this poorly and won against SA, Australia etc, we'd be labelling this as an embarrassing game for the ABs. But instead we say Japan are no easy beats anymore and we should expect results like this going forward. This was a very poor test for the ABs as a team and should be labeled as such.
-
@Steve said in Japan v All Blacks:
@ACT-Crusader said in Japan v All Blacks:
@Stargazer said in Japan v All Blacks:
“Meaningless test”, doesn’t look like it!
I’d be interested in what some of the players thoughts were of the atmosphere and crowd. Through the TV at least it looked amazing and certainly lifted the Japanese. The roar when Tatafu made a charge at the line or when Dearns broke through was huge.
Those two players don't sound Japanese...
Aki isn’t a traditional Irish name either.
Get over it. They are representative sides and not everyone that lives in Japan has generational heritage. -
@Stargazer said in Japan v All Blacks:
@canefan Yes.
I assume he could become eligible for NZ if he wished to?
-
@Joans-Town-Jones Played off the bench in the semi final against the All Blacks for England that knocked them out of the cup. He is a big halfback and would be close to the best in the country after Smith.
-
@canefan Yes, after a 3-year stand-down.
Edited to add this article:
“From since I was a kid I've always wanted to play Super Rugby,” Dearns said from Japan. “Obviously, as a young boy, growing up in New Zealand you always want to put on that black jersey.
“Coming over here, and having spent lots of time in high school here and actually playing a test now for Japan, I feel like it's like a second home at the moment.
“At the moment, my goal is to play in the next World Cup, this France World Cup for Japan, but if opportunity arose that was intriguing, I'd definitely have a look at it, and see what my options were.” -
@Dan54 said in Japan v All Blacks:
we not seeing the indivudual skill levels that I believe we did in the late 90s-early 2000s when we seemed to watch wonderful flowing games at test level.
Part of the problem, IMO, is that defensive players have become so efficient at jackling that the excellent mini-breaks that would have triggered thar flowing rugby, now often result in the player being isolated and conceding a penalty. Less risk = less ambition.
-
Coles and Cane out, heading home.
-
Amazed at the ignorance of so many posts about Japan here. Aside from a single pasting against Ireland Japan has been very competitive against all international opposition in recent years. So against a second string AB team and with some fortuitous tries the closeness of scoreline should not have been such a shock.
Really liked the inventiveness in Japanese lineout, but we also pulled off a huge lineout play.
I thought our backline was very poor and the kicking and defensive reads far too inaccurate and ruck clearance was sloppy. The absence of a kicking 12 stunted us with the defence in our faces. Hope to see Jordie back there and see why they have persevered with Havili.
Surprised that nobody seemed to notice the high workrates of Cane Sotutu Vaii Retallick and Sami cos I thought that effort won us the match. -
@SBW1 said in Japan v All Blacks:
@Joans-Town-Jones Played off the bench in the semi final against the All Blacks for England that knocked them out of the cup. He is a big halfback and would be close to the best in the country after Smith.
Honestly, I'd be after Will Genia. He's the best 9 I've seen behind a forward pack going backwards.
-
Stuff
