The Silver Fern

@gt12 said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:

EDG seems to be an absolute meathead.

How is that a meathead? You are committed to a tackle, then the guy gets tackled to change height. It isn't even a shoulder direct to the head, it is a glancing blow and inadvertent. Nothing he could do there, really.

I'm not sure if this has been discussed elsewhere. The main points:

• Martin Devlin did not ask any questions about Foster's future as All Blacks coach.
• Foster says we need to attack more through our set piece.
• Did not really answer why players could not change tactics last week. He felt we did learn in the second half.
• We weren't able to change how we dealt with the pressure. 3 dumb penalties killed us.
• Team has worked hard on improving physicality. Good results with speed of the ball. Feels the desire to get more combative as transferred into niggle.
• Thinks that players are getting away with too much provocation.
• Is pragmatic that we may need to kick more penalty goals to win games. Felt Australia turned down too many shots at goal last night.
• Wants to give opportunities to players. Doesn't really give anything away as to what team he will pick for Saturday.
• Media and fans can pull team back into something they have mentally moved on from as a playing group.
• Supports Cane 100% and does not believe he needs to talk to him about his public comments. His captain can say what he wants but didn't really agree with the comments. States Cane didn't really believe what he said either.

@Pot-Hale said in Blues v BI Lions:

And booing as well.

How can your fans complain about booing when your forwards yell at us every time we try to put the ball into a lineout? Shouldn't you be more worried about the sportsmanship of your players, than the fans?

@SimonAdd_2

As voted by you:

Cane 277
R. Ioane 206
Retallick 169
Whitelock 142
Read 141
A. Smith 126
SBW 98
D Mac 92
Hames 76
B. Barrett 75

Part of the problem is New Zealanders will watch this game and be dismissive of England and how they are playing. We will completely ignore our own faults and refuse to learn from other countries because they are boring and because we feel we play rugby much better. The result is we will continue to lose game after game, with the odd exception when we get an open game.

The thing is Steve Hansen had a dreadful record before he coached the All Blacks. He had a decent record with Canterbury, was poor with Wales and had never coached at Super Rugby level. When Hansen was appointed, plenty of people on here were aghast. He simply hadn't had the success to earn himself the position. The difference with Hansen was the players he had in his squad in 2012 were still a big part of what had been successful under Henry. Hansen didn't have to adapt from the start.

Foster is a different kettle of fish. We need to change how we play. If you want change in an organisation you hire externally. If you want continuity you hire internally. The big mistake is that the loss to England and other performances were written off as aberrations, when they were indicative of a trend.

Man Cruden kicking the ball away with 90 seconds was pretty hard to stomach. That's a 2% play. It was well covered by two Lions defenders. Lions had given away penalties all day. The plan should have been to work upfield, kick a drop goal and at least draw the series.

Also the quick lineout was so unnecessary.

@stargazer said in Crusaders v Hurricanes - SF:

Can't remember whether I already posted this.

Should really be a sell out though. TBF, it isn't just the Crusaders who struggle, it is everyone but all playoff games should sell out a 20k seat stadium.

I thought that was a great game of rugby. If you thought it was boring, give the World Cup a miss.

@Donsteppa said in Indian Cricket Tour of NZ 2020:

Can't believe that was potentially the last game with Smithy, Coney, and Waddle on the airwaves.

If cricket isn't on radio next summer, it is a massive loss for the game in this country. Cricket is well suited to that format and it keeps people interested who wouldn't sit down and watch a whole day's play.

One of the questions about Barrett (apart from his goal kicking) was how he would do in a game where our forwards were getting dominated. I do not know that our forward pack did get dominated but we were well behind in territory and possession then of course there was the penalties. Barrett answered those questions by how well he played.

Mo'unga would be one of the last Crusaders I would criticise tonight. They were beaten up at the breakdown and that was the game. I think Barrett is probably better than Mo'unga when the team is getting dominated. I don't think many first-fives around the world actually do well when the team is getting dominated up front.

You can't be coach for 8 years, still be world number 1 and only benefit from the coach who came before you. He's obviously a good coach.

Our game plan was still frustrating though. In the first half, England were on top and we were under pressure. So what did we do? We kicked the ball back to them at the first opportunity. Is that the coaching? Or do our players just have low rugby IQ? Why can't we be content with just keeping the ball, absorbing the pressure and striking later when we get on top? We have done this repeatedly over the past few years. Either our game plan is poor or Hansen has not been able to implement a good game plan for absorbing and confronting pressure.

@crucial said in AB Test Team v France.:

Fair call IMO. Take SBW out of the equation and it is a probable try.
Can someone confirm if that is legal in league? It looked instinctive to me.

Yup. You are completely correct. One of the clearest penalty tries there can be. As soon as SBW makes an illegal player you have to ask whether a try would have been scored if SBW wasn't there.

@rotated said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #3:

@gt12 said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #3:

We've got a problem with our goal kicking, and the play of our 10 in running the game. It's a serious fucking problem, because Barrett is the best 10 we have in Super rugby, but he really struggled in this series. Like, fuck me gently, some people were looking for a Carter 2005 from him. How fucking far away from that level of play has he been? IMO, we would have easily won that game tonight with Carter - in current form - playing and taking the kicks. That's fucking worrying.

Agree 100%. Let's see where Beauden goes from here, but this HAS to end Hansen's indifference to our goal kicking. He has openly chastised media who've asked him about Beauden's kicking (or lack of it for the Canes). If you want to crap on about structure and culture and dedication Beauden has to learn how to goal kick - simple.

I find this whole thing strange. I find people saying we lost the last two weeks because of Beauden Barrett's goal kicking? When the Lions/England lose how come people rarely say it was because Farrell didn't score enough brilliant tries? Barrett missed two kicks today - one from out in front and one from out wide. We know there are better goal kickers in the world. However, even if Barrett got both those kicks it would only be an extra five points. We blew plenty of five pointers out there. Kieran Read gave away a needless penalty and that cost us three points as well.

I think it's just a psychological thing. Someone lines up a shot at goal so you expect it to go over (because it generally does). When they miss those are stored away as points lost.

@Siam said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:

@kpkanz said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:

@No-Quarter Looking at the stats i wouldnt call what Jordie did anything close to 'dominated'.

Will Jordan on the other hand 'dominated' super rugby this year.

Super Rugby Aotearoa 2020 Stats

Carries
Will Jordan - 88
Jordie Barrett - 83

Clean breaks
Will Jordan - 1st in competition with 15,
Jordie is not in the top 10

Defenders beaten
Will Jordan - 1st in competition with 39
Jordie - 6th with 22

Metres made
Will Jordan - 1st in competition with 724
Jordie is not in the top 10

Offloads
Will Jordan - 2nd in the competition with 9
Jordie is not in the top 10

Tries
Will Jordan - 1st in the competition with 6
Jordie is not in the top 10

In a pro sport where every team employs an analyst, and coaches refer to stats at every press conference and where all players have laptop "homework" those stats are damning.
Perceptions versus data. Not a besmirching of JB, but a solid case for inconsistent "hunch" selections

Jordie was injured for the first two games, then came back and won the Hurricanes the next four matches. Short memories. By all means back Jordan for 14 but Jordie was the MVP of SRA and should have been picked to start at full back.

That's the most not straight throw I have ever seen.

The worst part is that we lost that game with a dominant scrum and making double the running metres. Basically with New Zealand, you don't need to play rugby to beat us. We will just gift you penalties plus a try off the kickoff. That was a loss against the 9th ranked rugby team at home. It was pathetic.

The players have to take ownership there for not scoring against 13.

@canefan said in All Blacks v England:

@hydro11 said in All Blacks v England:

@kev said in All Blacks v England:

Our mindset is not to kick long. Never did it. Short kicking options in last 10 terrible.

Too many mistakes in first half left door open.

Laulala is a liability. His inability to get into defensive line created room for the try and yellow card. His selection just atrocitious.

Our players can't adjust the game plan based on the game situation. Kick short, if you want. Don't do it when you only have 14 players. Don't do it when you are defending a lead.

We are such a dream to play against. We crumble at the first sign of resistance.

It was time to drive up the middle, keep to touch and burn clock

We seem to somehow have lost our basic understanding of how to win a rugby match. Other teams only have to win games once, we have to win them five times over.