All Blacks Vs Springboks RC Week 2
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@Machpants Nepo was great off of the bench tonight.
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If we don't have Cane we need more defensive starch in the loosies. And I don't understand why Samisobi isn't the starter, his pick and go wears them down more than any other tight forward.
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@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks Vs Springboks RC Week 2:
Huge effort by Etzebeth just to play. Poor fulla.
Yeah. I'm sure he did it to honour his dad.
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@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks Vs Springboks RC Week 2:
Huge effort by Etzebeth just to play. Poor fulla.
Yeah much respect
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Special praise to Frizzell, Lomax, De Groot, Mo'unga, Jordie, Jordan and Raynal.
Christie showed a ton of guts. Pass was reasonable a lot of the time. The criticism on here is way over the top.
Scrums the majority of time were a thing of beauty.
Great to see Mo'unga bring his true ability to a test match
Willie Le Roux's defensive kicks sensational
Shelve the dinky AB defensive kicks, total disaster. -
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@canefan that’s about right. Frustrated more than anything. Wasn’t like Albany. Or the Straueli era.
But that game was there to be won despite perhaps the most sublime 20 minutes of rugby since 2015. And the boks nailing their own dicks to the floor in the second twenty.
But we didn’t have the playmakers to do it. Willemse and DDA were gash.
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@Machpants Beaudy was trying to entertain the crowd at the end going for a wonder breakout.
People on the Fern enjoy black boots, square scrums, straight running mid fielders, and kick the f**k out of it inside your 22. -
Well, that was a cracking game. One I was looking forward to and I sure wasn't disappointed.
Great start and some think we've seen a lot more of this in the last 5-6 Tests or so rather than being put under pressure. Without being hyperbolic, the focus in the 1st 20 was laser-like, set-pieces rock solid and even the bombs working well. The D in the 2nd 20 was outstanding.
40-60 minutes was a bit crap and Foster need to sort out the shit decisions which put pressure on us. Ditto Ryan in the forwards where the focus seems to drop away, and play gets fragmented at times. And we need more work in adapting as the game changes as @His-Bobness mentioned. Huge progress in that area though and pleased they were able to settle down and recover. There was no wide-eyed staring and the decision to go for the 3 was bang-on. Showed maturity.
The errors set in with poor exits and choosing the wrong option from the boot and that set the tone for far too long. The Saffas gave a masterclass in exits and showed how simple it is. Choose your moment for the bomb to attack and not when the momentum is shifting, FFS. Some players clearly need a kick up the arse.
Frizzell clearly did receive several kicks up the arse pre-season. That's 2 games in a row where he has been bloody good and to put this sort of performance against the Auld Enemy is outstanding - he really looked a mature, safe 6 today. Credit to him and the coaching team for that. Ditto Christie. Cringed when he came on but thought he was great, and his defence was awesome. Big step down from Nugget (and we'd be fucked if he gets injured) but he played a key part in the turnaround in the last 20.
Whither BB? Some brilliant stuff and shit stuff. Just a bit too flaky for me at times and a player of his experience should be making better decisions. Ritchie was fine and fitted into the game-plan well, Reiko and Jordie were solid as was Telea (one defensive lapse aside). Oh, and did I mention Will Jordan is back? I'd like to see him at 15 and think/hope he might be there against the Wobblies.
Watched a bit of Cane and Ardie and there's a def. change in 6/7/8 tactics with Ardie playing a much tighter role and closer to the breakdown. I'll let those who know a lot more than me to comment on this. Scooter/BBBR/Sam are our first-choice locks, and those positions are in good hands - outstanding today. Thought Taylor was fine, and the front row were pretty good against arguably the best 1-3 in word rugby. Thought the replacements there made a difference at exactly the right time.
Finally, our D is way, way better. Ref was v. good too, let the game flow and pretty consistent
Foster/Ryan/McLeod/Schmidt can feel happy with that. It was a key test and they passed it well. What I really liked is we pressured the Boks from the start and didn't panic that much when we lost momentum. Apart from the crap exits, that's real progress and give us some bandwidth to try new players and tactics rather than chasing big, big problems. Onward.
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@BerniesCorner the post about taking Sam Whitelock? I was sincere. I’d have him running our lineout- which was dogshit tonight.
He’d be too valuable as a 2/5 to us to waste him pushing in the scrums though. Far better distributor than DDA.
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@Smuts Our lineout was far from dog shit tonight
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@Victor-Meldrew about right. Apart from the ref, who was random, and distracted from important decisions by cramp
