Poll: AB wins on EOYT for a decent season
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It's a difficult poll to choose from. I feel like the year has been unrealised potential because IMHO we haven't always selected the best players available or given deserving players opportunity, and our gameplan isn't quite right IMHO. Having said that we played well and almost won a game vs SA in SA. Split the series over there and the complexion of the year might be different
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Reckon they get humped by Ireland by double digits accompanied by narrow losses to England and France. Razor has flattered to deceive so far. Im not drinking the koolaid.
Hoping for a 2004 esque tour though where some boys become men and GOATS are unearthed.
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@Jet said in Poll: AB wins on EOYT for a decent season:
Hoping for a 2004 esque tour though where some boys become men and GOATS are unearthed.
So I'm a nerd, so I popped on to see who debuted for the ABs in 2004. It's a fair list!
Jono Gibbes
Nick Evans
Sam Tuitupou
Craig Newby
Mose Tuiali'i
Rico Gear
Conrad Smith
Saimone Taumoepeau
Jimmy Cowan
Steven Bates
Casey Laulala
Piri Weepu
Jerome Kaino -
@Jet said in Poll: AB wins on EOYT for a decent season:
Hoping for a 2004 esque tour though where some boys become men and GOATS like Cam Roigard are unearthed.
FIFY
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@Jet said in Poll: AB wins on EOYT for a decent season:
Reckon they get humped by Ireland by double digits accompanied by narrow losses to England and France. Razor has flattered to deceive so far. Im not drinking the koolaid.
Dunno. I think they'll string together one great performance - just hope it's against Ireland. Sense much of the tour will be the usual inconsistent play we've come to expect. Hope I'm wrong and things improve.
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I'd be pretty surprised if anyone thrashed us, even if we're comprehensively outplayed I'd still expect us to be close on points (excessive cards aside). Our set-piece seems reasonably solid, though I do think at some point someone will have a good crack at our lineout if we persist with 3 small loosies. We have a strong tackling team: if there's one thing all our 6.5 loosies can do, it's make a lot of tackles then get back up and make some more.
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For starters, we should expect us to win.
However, if we do lose, and one may be acceptable, it will matter how we play and whether we can put teams under pressure across the game, especially in the last 20.
If we lose three games, I think there is a very good argument for us to get a new coach. Jamie Joseph is in New Zealand, Cotter is here, so we could probably build a far more (internationally) experienced team.
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Interesting way to look at this when you have to assign a number.
No matter what glitter you sprinkle on it, it's been a pretty average season. We have played some really good rugby at times, we've also played long periods of absolute dogshit rugby.
We scraped past England at home. Lost to Argentina at home. Lost twice to South Africa away. Scraped past a desperately poor Wallaby team away, then took care of them at home.I am astounded the good will the coaches have been shown given the results. Especially when they can't even fall back on the "building depth and developing new players" lifeline, given the conservative action at the selection table, and the continuity from last year.
If we lose all three big games then i think the end of season review becomes very very uncomfortable for a couple of guys. Lose two of them and there will be clamor for change. Lose one and i think every one at HQ heads in to Christmas feeling ok.
The really interesting scenario is we lose the 3 big games in what ever manner you chose, and then a broken team lose to Italy. That is when you see what an AB crisis looks like.
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This tour is very interesting. Will depend a lot on the mental fortitude and drive of some of the younger players.
Aumia, Williams, Vaai, Darry, Sititi , Ratima, Roigard.
Leadership is key. At times it has been lacking this year.
Even GOAT took time to grow into that role. -
@mariner4life said in Poll: AB wins on EOYT for a decent season:
then a broken team lose to Italy.
you were doing well up to that point
No chance we lose to Italy, even on the back of losses. The quality is too good.
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@BerniesCorner said in Poll: AB wins on EOYT for a decent season:
Leadership is key. At times it has been lacking this year.
Coaches picked ScoBa supported by JBar and RD. Not people that jump out as keeping cool heads in a crisis.
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If we had jettisoned the half-dead wood at the start of the season and brought in new guys, I would have been completely okay with our performances so far, except Argentina.
I understand the idea of smoothing the transition to get results while you build for the future - but if you don't get the results, your idea has failed. We could have rolled out the baby blacks and had exactly the same results (or better) so far this year with more of an eye to the future - so you have to ask, why didn't we? And that's on the coach.
For me, this tour is kinda more of the same - we're still in the bedding in the new game plan period - but based on squad selections the coach's plan may well be more of the same, and if so I want results. -
@nzzp said in Poll: AB wins on EOYT for a decent season:
@mariner4life said in Poll: AB wins on EOYT for a decent season:
then a broken team lose to Italy.
you were doing well up to that point
No chance we lose to Italy, even on the back of losses. The quality is too good.
at no point did i say it was likely to happen, i was simply painting a picture.
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At the start of the season I said four losses for a pass mark on the season, but also that we would struggle mightily to get there if we dropped a game to either Argentina or Australia.
Really, I had in mind a fair likelihood that we'd drop two in South Africa and two on this EOYT - but, also a prospect of losing to any of England, Argentina or Oz earlier in the season. But, also a prospect that we'd pick up a win or two that somewhat surprised me - and we'll need at least one of those on this tour. I'll be rapt if we win all three - a bit disappointed, but not hugely surprised if we win only one.
Can't agree with this idea of expecting us to win every game. Unless your "expect" means something different to mine.
I'd like us to win every game. I want us to win every game. And I expect them to strive to the utmost to win every game.
But, expecting to win ignores half of the reality that the opposition are striving to do exactly the same. And that part of the reason we had long unbeaten records vs the likes of Ireland and Argentina is that they were historically a bit shit.
Now we've had 25 years of professional rugby. We've exported untold players and coaches overseas, who have carried our IP to the opposition. And everyone is at the cutting edge with video analysis - so if you come up with a fabulous innovation one week, by the next week the opposition have worked out a counter and the following week your innovation is probably being used against you. So where is our massive competitive advantage to base this continued expectation of perfection? We're not the Harlem Globetrotters who carry a captive bunch of losers with us.
I can't really see how expecting to win every game in this day and age is grounded in reality.
And if you then start dropping players and sacking coaches because of these delusional expectations you'll rapidly go into a downward spiral where you're trawling Heartland rugby for All Blacks, because everyone at the higher level is a proven failure!
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@nzzp said in Poll: AB wins on EOYT for a decent season:
@mariner4life said in Poll: AB wins on EOYT for a decent season:
then a broken team lose to Italy.
you were doing well up to that point
No chance we lose to Italy, even on the back of losses. The quality is too good.
Agreed. It’s only Italy, not Scotland
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