All Blacks vs England 2
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I'm actually reasonably happy after those 2 games. The side is going through a pretty massive transition phase and I think they're on the right track in terms of how they want to play and how effective that will be if executed correctly. The biggest concern by far is the lineout because the players farking that up should have enough experience. Hopefully they get that right.
In terms of the backs, the only thing that can be considered "settled" is a centre combo who have been together for 5 minutes. Raw as fůck.
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@Chester-Draws said in All Blacks vs England 2:
Our lineout was appalling, but other than that we were not "error strewn".
We didn't drop a lot of ball forward
That's an interesting take considering at one stage the handling errors were England 4, NZ 9 (just before NZ made another handling error). Think it was even before halftime?
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@Rancid-Schnitzel said in All Blacks vs England 2:
@Frank said in All Blacks vs England 2:
God bless Smiley Barrett.
Seriously, imagine having sired 3 farking Allblacks. Possibly could've been 4 if Kane hadn't suffered those head knocks. I'd be dining out on that 24/7 til my final breath.
I remember him when he played for the Canes, never in any discussions for an AB call up but a very good, niggly player. I think it’s fair to say Scott inherited most of his playing genes but Jordie looks the most like him.
He probably butted heads with Todd Blackadder, Eroni Clarke, Waisake Sotutu (ok, his son nearly made it ), Semi Sititi, Eddie Ioane etc all of whom also have sons in the squad
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@Chris-B said in All Blacks vs England 2:
Yeah - but, we were good enough to beat the team that also lost by a point to SA in France - and a team that's had a full 6Ns and a warm up vs Japan to prepare.
That team that could only beat Wales by 2 points? 😊
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@nostrildamus
Last 2 years DMac has been best NZ 10 in my eyes -
As much as our midfield and Loosies aren't "firing" on attack. What is clear in the game is there are a lot of opportunities going begging due to poor option taking and/or being conservative and taking contact instead of getting a pop away.
Reminiscent of the last regime but I'm willing to see it play out and hopefully click once everyone is comfortable.
The other thing to think about in test rugby is the old safe storage of dry powder. Don't even open the doors to the barn if you don't need to, bring it out sparingly.
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@Chester-Draws said in All Blacks vs England 2:
We took some wrong options, but no-one ever gets them all right. We didn't make many yards with the forwards, but that isn't an error.
Are you suggesting was a deliberate plan not to make many yards with the forwards and this wasn't an error (poor execution in other words)?
Every test has errors because of the pressure they are under, but in the key areas of not dropping ball or dropping tackles we were much improved over the start of the last few years.
I saw little improvement from last year - in the forwards, apart from scrums, we actually seem to have regressed in areas. Kudos to Robertson for bringing BB on and reverting to last years game-plan, though.
Some people on this forum seem to think that not only should the ABs be the best, that they should be perfect too
When we were beaten by the No.1 team in the world, I didn't hear people saying "that's OK we can't be the best all the time" - and rightly so.
Of course we can't be perfect, but I don't expect this sort of dross to be excused on the basis of cherry-picking positives to prove we are getting better when we clearly are treading water at best.
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@kev said in All Blacks vs England 2:
@voodoo said in All Blacks vs England 2:
Why does Scott Barrett do that half-arsed chargedown attempt at every single oppo ruck box-clearance? I don't feel like he's got one since 1993 and it just leaves him late to the next phase
Because he puts 100% into everything. He is the Richie McCaw of this team. Huge motor.
He's been A++ for effort. Handled the captaincy well too.
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@Chris-B Perofeta deserves another start
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@Victor-Meldrew No cards!
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Positives:
BB
Paps
Scrum
Goal kicking
Vaai
Perofeta
Ball retentionThere's not a lot to moan about
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@BerniesCorner said in All Blacks vs England 2:
Positives:
BB
Paps
Scrum
Goal kicking
Vaai
Perofeta
Ball retentionThere's not a lot to moan about
Plus a good cameo from Ratima. Something for the kid to build from.
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@BerniesCorner said in All Blacks vs England 2:
@Chris-B Perofeta deserves another start
Agreed.
Start Ratima and Proctor on the bench
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@BerniesCorner said in All Blacks vs England 2:
Positives:
BB
Paps
Scrum
Goal kicking
Vaai
Perofeta
Ball retentionThere's not a lot to moan about
I would add finding a way to win two close games on the trot against a well prepared side who would have rated their chances big time, and done while they weren't playing as well as they could. Something AB teams of the last few years struggled to do.
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@BerniesCorner said in All Blacks vs England 2:
Positives:
BB
Paps
Scrum
Goal kicking
Vaai
Perofeta
Ball retentionThere's not a lot to moan about
Negatives:
Lineout
Restarts
Ball Carrying
Kick Defence -
@Crazy-Horse said in All Blacks vs England 2:
@BerniesCorner said in All Blacks vs England 2:
Positives:
BB
Paps
Scrum
Goal kicking
Vaai
Perofeta
Ball retentionThere's not a lot to moan about
I would add finding a way to win two close games on the trot against a well prepared side who would have rated their chances big time, and done while they weren't playing as well as they could. Something AB teams of the last few years struggled to do.
I'm a bit sceptical the whole mind-set has changed and all those years of struggling to win when not playing well and under pressure have been vanquished after 3 weeks and 2 Tests together.
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Yup, even though Foz was retained after the SA win he was effectively replaced by Schmidt.
Foz was basically an a mascot by the time the World Cup came round
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@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs England 2:
@Crazy-Horse said in All Blacks vs England 2:
@BerniesCorner said in All Blacks vs England 2:
Positives:
BB
Paps
Scrum
Goal kicking
Vaai
Perofeta
Ball retentionThere's not a lot to moan about
I would add finding a way to win two close games on the trot against a well prepared side who would have rated their chances big time, and done while they weren't playing as well as they could. Something AB teams of the last few years struggled to do.
I'm a bit sceptical the whole mind-set has changed and all those years of struggling to win when not playing well and under pressure have been vanquished after 3 weeks and 2 Tests together.
I didn't say anything has been vanquished...
