Blues v Brumbies
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@Duluth huge game for the Blues at home. Win this game and they will begin to open a gap to third place. Alternatively, it's also a huge game for the Brums, they have the Blues this week and then the Canes next week. If they can win one or both, they'll be pushing for first place. Lose both however and the Blues and Canes will start competing with each other for that top spot.
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@Duluth said in Blues v Brumbies:
Blues defence has been impressive so far, only conceding 95 points. The next best is the Canes with 141
Wow that's very impressive. Defence wins championships in my view so that's a great statistic to have. How does that compare to recent seasons, Cotter's influence perhaps?
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Hard to find the old numbers.
From memory the defence was tight under MacDonald (usually top 3?) but dipped a bit last year. A few Blues fans were blaming McGrath but he's still the defence coach now.
Cotter's simplified game plan probably has helped and there's been plenty of rotation/competition in the pack
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@KiwiMurph said in Blues v Brumbies:
One area that's improved under Cotter is discipline. Fewer penalties/cards
And fitness. We used to fade badly in the last ten mins, I'd argue that's been completely flipped.
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PLAYOFF RACE HEATS UP — Blues Rugby
Tele’a, Darry return A tantilising top four contest in Super Rugby Pacific takes centre stage at Eden Park this Saturday night with the second-placed Blues hosting the third-placed ACT Brumbies. Both the Blues and Brumbies sit on 27 competition points with 6-1 win-loss records, meaning Saturday’
1 Ofa Tu’ungafasi
2 Ricky Riccitelli
3 Marcel Renata
4 Patrick Tuipulotu (c)
5 Laghlan McWhannell
6 Akira Ioane
7 Dalton Papali’i
8 Hoskins Sotutu
9 Taufa Funaki
10 Harry Plummer
11 Caleb Clarke
12 Bryce Heem
13 Rieko Ioane
14 Mark Tele’a
15 Cole Forbes16 Kurt Eklund
17 Joshua Fusitu’a
18 Angus Ta’avao
19 Sam Darry
20 Adrian Choat
21 Sam Nock
22 Lucas Cashmore
23 AJ LamPlayers not considered: Stephen Perofeta (shoulder), Finlay Christie (groin), Zarn Sullivan (knee), Rob Rush (calf), Cam Suafoa (sickness)
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James Slipper, Billy Pollard, Sefo Kautai, Darcy Swain, Cadeyrn Neville, Rob Valetini, Jahrome Brown, Charlie Cale, Ryan Lonergan (c), Noah Lolesio, Corey Toole, Tamati Tua, Hudson Creighton, Ollie Sapsford, Tom Wright
Reserves: Connal McInerney, Blake Schoupp, Rhys Van Nek, Nick Frost, Tom Hooper, Luke Reimer, Harrison Goddard, Jack Debreczeni
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A 6/2 bench is becoming a regular feature of teams playing the Blues. Indicative of the perceived strength/threat of the Blues Pack.
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@Daffy-Jaffy said in Blues v Brumbies:
A 6/2 bench is becoming a regular feature of teams playing the Blues. Indicative of the perceived strength/threat of the Blues Pack.
Think both teams like the confontational type game from their forwards, so makes it real interesting.
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It's unusual having so many Blues centurions in the same team together, all came through at around the same time as well.
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The Blues struggle with the Brumbies but the recent record is better than I thought
Blues v Brumbies resultsBlues have won 6 of the last 8 games against them going back to 2015
However the Brumbies won last year and the last 3 results have been very close:
2023 in Melbourne Blues lost 20-25
2022 in Auckland Blues won 20-19
2022 in Canberra Blues won 21-19 -
@Duluth We always struggle with their style. They're usually good at slowing our ball down and attacking our rolling maul, which forces us to play off slow ball.
They always make us look bad, whether we beat them or not.
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..and in the past we've given up plenty of 5m mauls. Discipline will be important
I'm a fan of Coventry and I think his impact at the Blues is underrated. However one thing that his pack never nailed was the maul defence. It appears Cotter has made an improvement there.
