10. 2023 FIRST FIVE-EIGHTH
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I don’t think there has been a stand out 10. Pollard made the important kicks, didn’t do much wrong but in truth didn’t do much. Mounga, a bit hot and cold, probably had the best highlights reel, but it was a short one. Jaminet, ether pretty damn good or shocking. Sexton, not the player he was but suits the Ireland game. Russell - yea, nah. Great passing game but not an all round good enough decision maker.
For all round play, I’d probably go for the Argie, Carreras.
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Good shout
Although Sanchez was the closer
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@Catogrande said in 10. 2023 FIRST FIVE-EIGHTH:
Mountain, a bit hit and cold, probably had the best highlights reel, but it was a short one.
I thought he peaked all the way through.
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@Bones said in 10. 2023 FIRST FIVE-EIGHTH:
@Catogrande said in 10. 2023 FIRST FIVE-EIGHTH:
Mountain, a bit hit and cold, probably had the best highlights reel, but it was a short one.
I thought he peaked all the way through.
Suffered from having his head in the clouds I thought
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@voodoo OK that's enough now.
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@Catogrande said in 10. 2023 FIRST FIVE-EIGHTH:
@voodoo OK that's enough now.
You sound like my wife
Or my kids, now that I think about it
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Apologies for my Joe Maplin post. Fat thumbs and little concentration.
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@Catogrande regardless, I'm voting for him.
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@Mr-Fish said in 10. 2023 FIRST FIVE-EIGHTH:
I thought Carreras was mostly awful for Argentina?
It's gotta be Sexton or Mo'unga. Big minutes, big impact.
There was one big, long minute for Ireland - at the death of the QF. And Sexton choked hard. There was all sorts of space that either the pressure blinkered him to or he didn’t have the nuts to use. A handy NPC player, no more.
Swap Mounga (or McKenzie for that matter) and Johnny Disgrace and Ireland wins that game.
Mounga’s gone from strength to strength this year. Started to look capable of controlling a test, steering the ABs round the park while also delivering lovely passes to put his backline (and the odd forward into space) and then thrusting himself through non existent gaps. And he’s good for a worldclass cover defence tackle every third game or so. He showed all this and more in the QF and semi. And almost all of it in the final.
But almost isn’t enough in a Championship game. With a malfunctioning bok lineout and, especially at the death, against a tiring bok backline down a critical back three defender, he should’ve been able to pin the boks into their 22 for the knockout droppie, maul or half break. And that’s despite having sixty percent of possession during the match (and more as the game closed out.)
Instead, this year’s best flyhalf (ably assisted by a pretty good defence to be sure) controlled field position:
Pollard is a stone-cold killer. Rugby’s Hannibal Lecter. No flashy moths in mouths or skin suits. He doesn’t care if his scalpel work causes rivers of ink to flow from besotted sots [don’t you mean journos? - ed.] He’s not harvesting broken ankles as trophies so that he can wank over video clips later.
He takes his joy from surgically slicing out the pound of flesh closest to the heart with maximum efficiency. Maybe that’s a bit over the top.
It’s not joy driving him.
It’s a compulsion so urgent it won’t tolerate any ephemeral bullshit. Gut the bastards, savour the look of surprised horror as they come to the certain, terrifying knowledge that their hopes of a win are pooling on your boot. But just as long as it takes to walk to collect the only trophy that matters.
That’s what he did in when he took the field in the QF and again in the semi. But you could see that even the cruelty of his work in the semi wasn’t satisfying.
So it’s no surprise how briskly he put the game beyond the ABs reach in the final. Surgically taking every point on offer (just as he did in every other playoff game) and but for Ardie’s incredible work, came within a gnat’s eyelash of slicing three more. Just as importantly, while he used his backline to create three clear try scoring chances over the penalties lying neatly dissected at his feet, he did it without giving the ABs even a sniff of a turnover to counterattack off. He was happy to bloodlessly suffocate the ABs. Let Mounga dance in front of the mirror with his junk between his legs, and dare the crowd: would you fuck me? I’d fuck me!
Swap the 10s and the ABs are eating the bok’s liver with a nice Chianti and some fava beans. Leave aside the delta in field position, there’s no missed penalty to touch in the first half, and you still have both the conversion and the long range penalty getting converted. Plus you have kicks sailing through the uprights rather than penalties getting squandered in fluffed lineouts.
So vote however you want. Just know that Pollard’s out there impossible to pick out of the crowd already feeling the old thirst that can only be slaked by sipping blood redolent of forlorn hope from the Cup.
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@Smuts There was all sorts of space that either the pressure blinkered him to or he didn’t have the nuts to use. A handy NPC player, no more.
I think it was more that he was knackered, he should've been pulled last quarter, but coach of the year Farrell didn't have the guts. Same as Fabian with dupont
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@Smuts said in 10. 2023 FIRST FIVE-EIGHTH:
@Mr-Fish said in 10. 2023 FIRST FIVE-EIGHTH:
I thought Carreras was mostly awful for Argentina?
It's gotta be Sexton or Mo'unga. Big minutes, big impact.
There was one big, long minute for Ireland - at the death of the QF. And Sexton choked hard. There was all sorts of space that either the pressure blinkered him to or he didn’t have the nuts to use. A handy NPC player, no more.
Swap Mounga (or McKenzie for that matter) and Johnny Disgrace and Ireland wins that game.
Mounga’s gone from strength to strength this year. Started to look capable of controlling a test, steering the ABs round the park while also delivering lovely passes to put his backline (and the odd forward into space) and then thrusting himself through non existent gaps. And he’s good for a worldclass cover defence tackle every third game or so. He showed all this and more in the QF and semi. And almost all of it in the final.
But almost isn’t enough in a Championship game. With a malfunctioning bok lineout and, especially at the death, against a tiring bok backline down a critical back three defender, he should’ve been able to pin the boks into their 22 for the knockout droppie, maul or half break. And that’s despite having sixty percent of possession during the match (and more as the game closed out.)
Instead, this year’s best flyhalf (ably assisted by a pretty good defence to be sure) controlled field position:
Pollard is a stone-cold killer. Rugby’s Hannibal Lecter. No flashy moths in mouths or skin suits. He doesn’t care if his scalpel work causes rivers of ink to flow from besotted sots [don’t you mean journos? - ed.] He’s not harvesting broken ankles as trophies so that he can wank over video clips later.
He takes his joy from surgically slicing out the pound of flesh closest to the heart with maximum efficiency. Maybe that’s a bit over the top.
It’s not joy driving him.
It’s a compulsion so urgent it won’t tolerate any ephemeral bullshit. Gut the bastards, savour the look of surprised horror as they come to the certain, terrifying knowledge that their hopes of a win are pooling on your boot. But just as long as it takes to walk to collect the only trophy that matters.
That’s what he did in when he took the field in the QF and again in the semi. But you could see that even the cruelty of his work in the semi wasn’t satisfying.
So it’s no surprise how briskly he put the game beyond the ABs reach in the final. Surgically taking every point on offer (just as he did in every other playoff game) and but for Ardie’s incredible work, came within a gnat’s eyelash of slicing three more. Just as importantly, while he used his backline to create three clear try scoring chances over the penalties lying neatly dissected at his feet, he did it without giving the ABs even a sniff of a turnover to counterattack off. He was happy to bloodlessly suffocate the ABs. Let Mounga dance in front of the mirror with his junk between his legs, and dare the crowd: would you fuck me? I’d fuck me!
Swap the 10s and the ABs are eating the bok’s liver with a nice Chianti and some fava beans. Leave aside the delta in field position, there’s no missed penalty to touch in the first half, and you still have both the conversion and the long range penalty getting converted. Plus you have kicks sailing through the uprights rather than penalties getting squandered in fluffed lineouts.
So vote however you want. Just know that Pollard’s out there impossible to pick out of the crowd already feeling the old thirst that can only be slaked by sipping blood redolent of forlorn hope from the Cup.
This 100%
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@Bones said in 10. 2023 FIRST FIVE-EIGHTH:
@Catogrande
regardlesshe’s the Kiwi, so of course I'm voting for him.Just correcting your comprehension.
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@Catogrande said in 10. 2023 FIRST FIVE-EIGHTH:
@Bones said in 10. 2023 FIRST FIVE-EIGHTH:
@Catogrande
regardlesshe’s the Kiwi, so of course I'm voting for him.Just correcting your comprehension.
I fucking know what a mountain is you condescending fuck.
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@Bones said in 10. 2023 FIRST FIVE-EIGHTH:
@Catogrande said in 10. 2023 FIRST FIVE-EIGHTH:
@Bones said in 10. 2023 FIRST FIVE-EIGHTH:
@Catogrande
regardlesshe’s the Kiwi, so of course I'm voting for him.Just correcting your comprehension.
I fucking know what a mountain is you condescending fuck.
Patronising. I think you mean patronising.
