All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham
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@Old-Samurai-Jack said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@LatsToTheMax said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@African-Monkey said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@brodean said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@African-Monkey said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@Bovidae said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
Right wing is still an issue. Telea is continually exposed on defence, and I can see England isolating him again.
Yeah I'm usually Telea's number 1 fan but he's almost become 2024's version of Nehe Milner Skudder overnight. He looks slower and isn't having the same impact in close quarters like he was last season.
I feel like this could be his last campaign with the ABs.
Tele'a ran 80 metres, scored a try, had two try assists, two line breaks, and 9 defenders beaten. You don't think that was an impact? What else were you expecting him to do? I think most test wingers would be stoked with those stats.
Most players did out there, I think @KiwiMurph pointed out and rightly too, that if Caleb Clarke had the space out there that Tele'a and Reece had, I dread to think how badly things would have turned out for Japan. This Japanese side couldn't tackle. He got gassed out there on defence on a few occasions too.
As I said, I'm a huge Tele'a fan and he's done some great things for the Blues and ABs, but right now, I can't make a case for him. I hope he finds his best again.
Jesus Christ, more often than not it wasn't Tale'a's fault their backs ran through us. I remember one incident where it was clearly him getting gassed but the rest were the midfleid.
Tele'a is not taking the outside, always cutting back in regardless and this kind of stops the flow of the game for the ABs I think. Has he lost some pace? Reece at least pins his ears back at times and just goes for it as well as doing the close in work that Tele'a does. Horses for courses? If wet and a heavy track or a defensively tight arm-wrestle maybe Tele'a is the best option?
Good points you make there. Tele'a is bloody hard to put down in close despite his form and yeah, maybe if the tracks up there are a bit softer, then he does get a run? He could still break a game open if it is dour.
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@reprobate said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
Getting walked over at the end of test 1 doesn't change how well we played for 60 minutes, and that we were up 4 tries to 1.
It's a shit result, and a terrible finish to a game we had in the bag - but we did unlock their defence.But they saw what we did an locked it back up for the second
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@LatsToTheMax We lost them both.
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I hope England are basically the same team that came down, or as close as possible to it. I'd like to judge where we're at and what improvements we've made.
There's been glimpses, but so much shit it's hard for me to tell if those good bits have been by design or good luck.
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@sparky said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@LatsToTheMax We lost them both.
So that means we didn't get by the rush D?
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@Machpants said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@reprobate said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
Getting walked over at the end of test 1 doesn't change how well we played for 60 minutes, and that we were up 4 tries to 1.
It's a shit result, and a terrible finish to a game we had in the bag - but we did unlock their defence.But they saw what we did an locked it back up for the second
We squandered numerous chances after getting through and around their rush D. Their D was better in Cape Town but we still broke it down only to f@ck up the end game. To say we didn't unlock it because we lost is simply untrue.
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Tubby Barnes firing some early shots. I don't see the ABs beating the rush defence with BB at 1st 5.
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Easily the most subdued build up to an AB test since I've lived here (both stints).
Barely any coverage, not much chat & little interest outside rugby circles.
Does this play in our favour? Not convinced. I think England are happy that it's this way so they can focus the build up with a potential surprise in the mix.
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@LatsToTheMax I prefer the games the All Blacks win, if I'm honest.
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@MajorRage said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
Easily the most subdued build up to an AB test since I've lived here (both stints).
Barely any coverage, not much chat & little interest outside rugby circles.
Does this play in our favour? Not convinced. I think England are happy that it's this way so they can focus the build up with a potential surprise in the mix.
Rugby is dying on its arse in terms of mainstream media interest in the UK. The big sport stories yesterday were the sacking of Ten Hag and the awarding of the Ballon D'Or. I doubt many of the current England Rugby team would be recognised by more than 5% of British teenagers. It's minority sport.
The first mention of Saturday's game is sport story number 28 on the BBC Sport website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/c93q8g904ndo
That said, I agree that all this plays into England's favour. Steve Borthwick's team have been preparing for this one for weeks. This will be a massive test for Scott Robertson's All Blacks.
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@sparky said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@LatsToTheMax I prefer the games the All Blacks win, if I'm honest.
We all do. But it doesn't mean we can't look for positives in games we lost, same as negatives in games we won.
There were huge positives in Boks 1, which we lost, and huge negatives in Bled 1, which we won.
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@MajorRage said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
Easily the most subdued build up to an AB test since I've lived here (both stints).
Barely any coverage, not much chat & little interest outside rugby circles.
Does this play in our favour? Not convinced. I think England are happy that it's this way so they can focus the build up with a potential surprise in the mix.
I also think the lack of interest, outside Rugby circles, is in part the diminishing of the All Blacks brand.
Between 2005 and 2017, they were seen in the UK as the most successful team in any global sport. Now, not so much.
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If Scott Robinson's All Blacks were as good as some would believe, they would have won at least one game in South Africa earlier this year. Ireland did.
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@sparky said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@MajorRage said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
Easily the most subdued build up to an AB test since I've lived here (both stints).
Barely any coverage, not much chat & little interest outside rugby circles.
Does this play in our favour? Not convinced. I think England are happy that it's this way so they can focus the build up with a potential surprise in the mix.
I also think the lack of interest, outside Rugby circles, is in part the diminishing of the All Blacks brand.
Between 2005 and 2017, they were seen in the UK as the most successful team in any global sport. Now, not so much.
This very much depends upon who you are talking to. If you're talking about the wider audience, you know the eyes that all the rugby administrators are chasing, then you might have a point. If you're talking to actual rugby people then I'd disagree very strongly. NZ are still looked at as world leaders in rugby terms and still huge draw.
The thing about those eyes that all the admins and marketing guys are chasing is that that have no brand loyalty - these are the people that no longer "support" Man United, don't wear their Brazil footy shirts anymore etc. So NZ aren't winning as much as before, so the fickle fuckers fuck off with their fickleness.
Growing the game my arse.
