RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks

[antipodean]

@KiwiMurph said in RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks:

@stodders said in RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks:

@Catogrande If only Barret could play 6 and lock at the same time. Problem solved

We'd still need a number 8

If only Sotutu's form hadn't fallen off a cliff playing for the coaching donkey McDonald.

[Kiwiwomble]

@taniwharugby said in RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks:

@Kiwiwomble yeah I wonder what the rationale was behind him not contesting them in the air, assume they were hoping he'd get the man on the ground and force them to play inside thier half, was just odd to restrict a weapon like that.

i kind of thought he was just going to take the ball on the full at top speed and smoker everyone....ignorant of the player jumping over him which for me was his mistake rather than timing

[nostrildamus]

@MiketheSnow said in RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks:

@antipodean said in RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks:

@MiketheSnow said in RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks:

@antipodean said in RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks:

@Machpants said in RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks:

Spiro Zavos on the roar is right on the money about the abs

Hilarious nonsense. He's calling for Ardie to play openside for the All Blacks, despite the fact he doesn't even play that position in SR and hasn't for years. Quoting Spiro makes any argument ridiculous.

Perhaps there’s an alternate view that Savea can and does play 8 in SR because it’s not Test Rugby

Unfortunately the RWC is Test rugby, not SR.

That was exactly my point

For Test rugby

Nasty bastard at 6
Big lump at 8
Ardie at 7

You haven't found players who can fill those 6 a7 tnd 8 positions consistently hence having to play Ardie at 8

you might be right but it seems to me they choose Ardie at 8 and Cane at 7 then the 6, Ardie no longer plays 7 (or wants to?) so they aren't putting him there at 8 because they can't find a 6 and 8. They play him at 8 because he plays/wants to play at 8.

[bayimports]

lol so some NZ scribes not afraid to say how they really feel

New Zealand is accepting of the defeat from schoolboy-like All Blacks

I think under coach Ian Foster’s tenure we’ve become accustomed to defeat. We don’t necessarily accept it, but we expect it.

[taniwharugby]

@bayimports plenty of comments could have been lifted from here.

[bayimports]

@taniwharugby absolutely, felt like I was re-reading the thread, just you don't often hear that from our rugby scribes

[Machpants]

I saw him talk – yet again – about lessons and hard truths after Saturday’s loss. Well, the losses are mounting under his stewardship and nothing appears to have been learnt from any of them.

Hallelujah, preach it, brother

[KiwiMurph]

You know it's dire when Hamish Bidwell is the voice of reason. Cripes.

[Bovidae]

I decided to re-watch this game to have a closer look at the lineouts. As per previous comments about not using Vaa'i as a lineout target, he was used as a lifter with one of the locks to lift the other lock. Examples being the first lineout of the game, and the lineout after Mo'unga made the try-saving tackle on Penaud. That pod worked well because of the extra height of the lifters. What was of more concern was how little the ABs challenged the French lineout. On one of the few occasions we did, the French lost the ball.

Christie wasn't the only ginga who had a shocker. Newell made de Groot look co-ordinated trying to roll away from a tackle. Zero impact.

Beauden actually played well for 60 mins until he and Mo'unga thought that the best option when chasing the game was to kick the ball away.