MotM vs Australia I
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<p>Three votes as always.</p>
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<p>Read, Crockett, Retallick. The positional switch took Barrett out of the equation.</p>
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Read, Barrett, Coles.<br><br>
BBBR unlucky -
kano, smith, bb
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BTW Cruden was awesome too
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<p>I put Fekitoa in the mix. Thought he came of age today, straightened the attack, got over the advantage line, only one silly pass. Was an assured and aggressive performance. BB is MoM though for me closed followed by BBBR. Awesome game, can't remember the AB's starting like this since...??</p>
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This was tough. So many candidates.<br><br>
I went Barrett, A Smith and Read. -
<p>I picked Barrett, Coles & Read.</p>
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<p>Barrett - a constant threat and creates huge space for everyone around him. Massive impact, and needs to be at 10 rather then 15 where he is less involved.</p>
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<p>Read - back to his best. </p>
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<p>Coles - best hooker in the business at the moment. Massive threat with ball in hand and gets stuck into the tight stuff when required. Must be tough as hell to be playing with the rib injury as well.</p>
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<p>BBR, A Smith, Cane, Kaino, Crockett and Whitelock all outstanding. Naholo and Crotty both excellent before going off.</p> -
Read, whitelock and a smith.
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Read for the standout plays, and Whitelock and Retallick because lineouts stood out for me, and their tackling, ball handling and essential tight five mentality.<br><br>
It's always the tight five that batters the Wallabies -
Barrett, Whitelock & Read.
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<p>Kaino for being in Beast Mode Plus</p>
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BB, Read and BBBR. Always good to see the forwards dominate this poll.
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Amazing from Coles to play that well when in truth still injured and in lots of pain. BB was also fantastic and is developing rapidly into a great All Blakcs first five. All the forwards were excellent, but I thought Kaino deserved the nod for that extra bit of Beast.
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<p>Hard to pick with the forwards but looking at Kaino it was like he is not that old. Great defence and of course the charge down try combo. Read for being in the grind and plain exceptional in all phases of the game. Barret because he creates things and really no one could complain about his option taking as first five. He is all that and more. A caveat on things though was that the Aussies were shite.</p>
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<p>Read, Kaino and Barrett but could just have easily been Crockett (who I focused on for a good while, ambling about being bloody useful) and both Crotty and Cane for being pedestrian and past it.</p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="chimoaus" data-cid="607612" data-time="1471720456">
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<p>BB, Read and BBBR. Always good to see the forwards dominate this poll.</p>
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<p>Very tough to pick this week, so many standouts. These were my picks too. Honourable mentions to Cane and A Smith.</p>
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<p>Even the players getting a little bit of grief: Dagg and Fekitoa, I reckon went alright. Personally, I don't think Fekitoa would be playing if we didn't have so many injuries, but we did so he stepped up and went pretty good. If you play the game at 100mph, you'll make mistakes but hopefully the good outweighs the bad. I'm sure he played a big role in all the errors Aus made with his linespeed.</p>
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<p>I thought Dagg went well. Yep, he made mistakes... but as a result of him attacking and trying things, which I can handle.</p> -
<p>I'm waiting until I can watch a replay after only seeing the game at the ground. But, got home last night and my recordings of this match and the SA v Arg match fucked up but the Warriors didn't. Stupid Foxtel box, also had to re-set it twice this morning to find all my recordings.</p>
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<p>At the ground I thought Retallick, Broden, and Coles were the best three but I'd prefer to vote after watching tv version. I also thought Read and Cane went well, although from the distance I was at I sometimes muddled them up!</p> -
<p>So hard to select, so many options, went Retallick, Whitelock and Barrett. All 3 starting loose forwards could have been chosen here too. </p>
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Read, BB and Whitelock for me.
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<p>BB, Aaron Smith and Kaino for me. Read hot on their heels. Kaino is playing like he's getting younger!!</p>
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<p>our 3rd string hooker ended up playing a fair chunk of that game </p>
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<p>Barrett, Retallick, A Smith</p>
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<p>Barrett, Retallick and Read but it could have been Coles, Kaino and Whitelock !</p>
<p>Barrett did the spectacular but the forwards paved the way for him. The Nr.10 jersey is his now despite his kicking issues (Cruden not better anyway in that department). He is currently the most influental player in the world IMO.</p> -
<p>Retallick, Whitelock and Barrett for me. Read loses points with a YC.</p>
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<p>Kaino, Coles and Cane and only Cane because it roles off the tongue better after Kaino and Coles.</p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Hooroo" data-cid="607994" data-time="1471832640">
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<p>Kaino, Coles and Cane and only Cane because it roles off the tongue better after Kaino and Coles.</p>
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<p>I was on Cane watch and after a couple of early mistakes he was huge. Fuck that man has a motor on him.</p> -
<p>He had a great game. Certainly not missing McCaw in the 7 role at the moment</p>
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<p>Whitelock, Barrett, Read</p>
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<p>Kaino would be 4th</p> -
<p>When Kaino retires, he will be hard to replace. I know there are a lot of good sixes in NZ (Dixon, Squire, Luatua, Taufua, Shields, Seu, Fifita, Sanders) but none of them can terrorize the ball carriers as Kaino does. None of them has his physicality (Luatua maybe) nor his technical abilities. I think he is the perfect 6 while most of the others have issues in their game (Dixon and Squire can go missing sometimes, Taufua is not big enough, Shields has tits for hands, Seu and Fifita do not have the required physicality yet, Sanders misses too many tackles). Luatua is the one who resembles most to Kaino IMO.</p>
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<p>Read, Cane, Barrett.</p>
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<p>Could easily have been Retallick & Kaino too.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="cgrant" data-cid="608095" data-time="1471856960">
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<p>When Kaino retires, he will be hard to replace. I know there are a lot of good sixes in NZ (Dixon, Squire, Luatua, Taufua, Shields, Seu, Fifita, Sanders) but none of them can terrorize the ball carriers as Kaino does. None of them has his physicality (Luatua maybe) nor his technical abilities. I think he is the perfect 6 while most of the others have issues in their game (Dixon and Squire can go missing sometimes, Taufua is not big enough, Shields has tits for hands, Seu and Fifita do not have the required physicality yet, Sanders misses too many tackles). Luatua is the one who resembles most to Kaino IMO.</p>
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<p>Sorry for the grammatical errors. It was written far too quickly.</p> -
<p>I watched the test again yesterday, found myself focusing on Kaino a lot of the time - I feel like he's just as good as he was 4 years ago, certainly has still got 'it'.</p>
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<p>My 3: Kaino, BB, and Retallick</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="JayCee" data-cid="608222" data-time="1471908245">
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<p>certainly has still got 'it'.</p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="cgrant" data-cid="608095" data-time="1471856960">
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<p>When Kaino retires, he will be hard to replace. I know there are a lot of good sixes in NZ (Dixon, Squire, Luatua, Taufua, Shields, Seu, Fifita, Sanders) but none of them can terrorize the ball carriers as Kaino does. None of them has his physicality (Luatua maybe) nor his technical abilities. I think he is the perfect 6 while most of the others have issues in their game (Dixon and Squire can go missing sometimes, Taufua is not big enough, Shields has tits for hands, Seu and Fifita do not have the required physicality yet, Sanders misses too many tackles). Luatua is the one who resembles most to Kaino IMO.</p>
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<p>I actually think Squire plays the more similar style to Kaino. He seems to have that combination of psycho and physicality in the tackle, plus the running game, both of which have been a hallmark of Kaino since he was consistently selected for the ABs in 2008.</p>
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<p>The big thing will be for Squire (or whoever takes over from JK) will be consistency of effort that has been relied on for so many years.</p> -
<p>JK is a really smart footballer, something his replacement is going to have to learn. Squire doesn't strike me as that guy, yet. </p>
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<p>I originally went with Barrett, Read and Retallick.</p>
<p>But on second viewing and one without the beer goggles on, I had to revise my picks and add Kaino as I think he had a huge impact on the game.</p>
<p>So new picks are Barrett, Read and Kaino.</p>
<p>His tight work on defense plus with ball in hand allowed Read and others to range a little wider.</p>
<p>And that chargedown, regather and score was just sublime!</p>
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<p>It's also hard to seperate Retallick and Whitelock for their immense work all night. We are absolutely spoiled to have those two working in tandem - Probably will go down in Rugby history as the best locking combo of all time!</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="mariner4life" data-cid="608306" data-time="1471918660"><p>JK is a really smart footballer, something his replacement is going to have to learn. Squire doesn't strike me as that guy, yet.</p></blockquote>
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Yep. Kaino has definitely developed into a high IQ player. Remarkable really given when I first watched him he seemed more interested in making the big hit/shoulder charge or wanting to force the issue. -
<p>After a second viewing, my votes are going to Barrett, Kaino and Retallick. Read made a knock one metre short of the try line (too eager to score ?) and earned a yellow card that is why I removed him from the list.</p>
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