The Silver Fern

Been very impressed with Caleb Clarke this match. Busy, energetic and not falling over every time he catches the ball

Not to take anything away from the Argies, but there’s no excuse for an ABs team at home to play like that. Absolutely unacceptable. That’s a pretty rude reality check for this team.

This ABs team definitely feels like a diamond in the rough that’s starting to find its feet. Having said that, don’t underestimate how much Cane and some of the older heads have contributed. They may not be world-beaters anymore, but they know what hard yards and high performance feels like. There are signs of the potential there, and best of all, most of the positivity is from the new breed.

Was at the game last night. Couple of observations:

• Va’ai and Ardie were very good
• Jordan is a weapon obviously, but prone to making bad calls from fullback
• Chips were useful on a heavy ground to turn the defense around initially, variation seems to be the key to upsetting rush defence
• Scrum a big part of ABs gaining upper hand
• kicking (place-kicking aside) is very average from ABs. Aimless field kicking (including box kicks) put us under pressure a few times, touch-finding never has any range. DMac and Beaudy are both wanting in those areas. Jordie with a howler near the end.
• Argies didn’t turn up and seemed pretty gutted at the end
• Disappointing how ABs lost shape after such a great start, but forgivable

Congratulations, Pumas. Totally out-played us.

@nostrildamus said in Italy v All Blacks:

ALB used to be known as Mr Reliable.

He is reliable… you can count on him for a yellow card in the 70th minute just about every game.

I’m gutted for Stevenson. What does that guy have to do to get a break?

@KiwiMurph

I’m far more worried about our forward play than our 15-10 combo. I’m very doubtful our front 8 have three big games in them against the likes of Ireland and SA.

At least the ABs had the decency to suck in the previous game too, so we didn’t go into this with false expectations

Razor needs to take his man-love goggles off re Blackadder

Positives? Ratima looked quick, Darry looked ok… didn’t lose a scrum in the first half

The chip in our own 40 is one of my most hated plays

After last week, this was a bit of a statement test. Unfortunately they’ve made the wrong statement.

Beaudy autocorrects to Beauty. And I think that’s apt.

@Kirwan said in Springboks vs All Blacks 2:

Shit selections, shit squad, shit coaches.

Quite the achievement to make me miss Fosters reign. We are soft as fuck.

Yeah, a Foster-coached Blues would have rag-dolled the Boks today 🙄

Argentina really turned up to play. ABs inexplicably flat. A few selections that in hindsight looked poor. I don’t think Ardie is a captain.

@canefan said in All Blacks vs Argentina I - 10 August:

@Darth-Sader he failed to select the players most responsible for the Blues' winning power game. The game most translatable to test level

I thought Sotutu was very unlucky not to be given an opportunity, and you could argue Ioane should had another shot too. But as good as Tuipulotu as been this year, realistically he’s a 60 min journeyman at best. That aside, the gulf between Super and test rugby is now massive, and as others have pointed out, it doesn’t prepare our players to step up. Honestly, I had hoped for a lot more positivity in how we played this year. We have limited top quality players, so we’ll need to develop them. Look how many kiwi cast-offs are playing for Ireland… it’s doable.

It’s Havili time!!

Little known fact: if you invert the image on the Shroud of Turin, it shows Ethan Blackadder’s face

@nostrildamus said in Italy v All Blacks:

What happened to Levi Aumua, by the way, was he a one trick pony or just not well used at the Crusaders?

Both?