@Crucial also he let the English first five waltz past him with BBS yellow card.

@broughie said in All Blacks MOTM v Scotland:

@nostrildamus who are you talking about? Coles? Are you testing my attentiveness?

Sorry, rather than testing you I am undoing myself, not enough sleep, meant Codie I think...

Fucking Scooter man. As much as you want to get on him for a multitude of reasons, it's just so hard to because of that workrate .

Savea an obvious choice despite the egg-dive. Paps great, both hookers awesome, Whitelock with some wicked tackles. Amd Smith learned to run again.

Fun!

I'm astounded the love Dalton is getting.

Came on, bustled, made a few tackles. That's his job. Did fuck all Cane didn't when he was on. We gave up metres and a try when he was on. ALB arguably had more impact, made 5 tackles and he's a centre.

The stats on this game are weird.

I only voted for Plummer, looks so much more comfortable at 12.

after the Manawatu game:
Reihana 3, Macilai 2, Rush 1, Matich 1

Rush wins our MVP for the season quite easily, with the Canterbury games scores not even in

Season total
Rush 15
Reihana 8
Moorby 7
Murray 7
Tua 6
Goodhue 5
Matich 5
Tu'ungafasi 4
Mau'u 4
McNamara 2
Milo-Harris 2
Macilai 2
Hallam-Eames 2
Nock 1
Te Whata Colley 1

@Duluth said in Auckland MOTM QF:

Hard to give it to any backs

Akira and Tuipulotu were excellent in the middle of the field. Peita for his cameo showing Pugh how it should be done

Peita is such a busy player, has to start surely?

Peita, Beehre, Taavao.

Funaki and AJ were good in the backs.

@kev for me, it's been Macilai's defence that has stood out this year, easily his best season defence-wise and still offers an attacking threat.

@nzzp said in All Blacks MOTM v Australia II:

@voodoo said in All Blacks MOTM v Australia II:

Seems I'm the only person that feels Smith is worthy of a top 3 spot, and other than Clarke, he was the only guy left to not get a vote.

Youse are crazy!

he suffers from sustained excellence. His normal is massive for us - but he also isn't quite what he was.

How you'd vote for Taylor over Smith I do not know

Yeah, I get that - but I also thought his 1st half in particular was noticably commanding, and such a step up from his recent outings.

The other thing I always notice about Smith is how fast he exits the field after being subbed - he motors and looks fresh as a daisy like he hasn't just played 66mins of rugby!, Bloody show off

@Chris-B said in All Blacks MOTM v Aussie I:

@nzzp Just to be clear, this is last week's poll. 🙂

oh holy shit. You're right.

As you were, man, that's a bloody sneaky move.

Tasman MOTM vs Northland

Levi Aumua - Votes 1,000! 🙂

Ummm so many mixed performances

Rayasi kept creating chances. Beehre was solid despite subbing relatively early. Lam was mostly good apart from one drop

Hodgman was close, gets through so much work. Funaki would’ve got a vote but that card changed the match

After Canterbury: Rush 3, Hallam-Eames 2, Reihana 2

Season
Rush 8
Moorby 6
Tua 5
Murray 4
Reihana 4
McNamara 2
Milo-Harris 2
Mau'u 2
Goodhue 2
Tu'ungafasi 2
Hallam-Eames 2
Nock 1
Te Whata Colley 1

I don't know about Ahio cost us 3 scrum penalties. Choat, Hodgman and Gibson for me.

First game i had watched in a few weeks as we always seem to play while I'm working or I would have something else on and like you @Duluth AJ and RTS were easy to pick. The 3rd was near impossible to pick so I just gave it to Plummer because he scored a try haha.

Disappointing effort from a very lacklustre Auckland side.

@kev I honestly think both CTC and O'Donnell would be so much better if they were properly fit...I'd love for CTC to get really fit, he'd be a real weapon as a prop, love his work, but as it is I think his fitness causes lapses where he looks bloody strong at scrumtime, then gets demolished the next.

Got so excited about the game I forgot who played well - chose Murray for that sensational break, Reihana for the clutch kick and a good alround game, and the vision of Macilai steaming on to the ball on the break turning back the years was enough for 3rd. I think the loose forwards played well also. Couldn’t choose who.

@dogmeat said in All Blacks MOTM v Argentina II:

@Crucial I wonder why Papali'i is rated N/A when guys that came on with or after him are given a score

N/A = Not Around? 😀

Plummer seems a very good captain, talk alot, incluing alot to the ref, probably a bit much at times, but its a fine line.

Thought the starting props and Trainor went well.

Yes the Funaki - Plummer axis is working well. Good to see both getting consistent minutes.

Backline has a good balance to it - the midfield compliments each other well.

Census Johnston doing well with the scrum.

I went Tua , Rush & Macilai ..honourable mentions for Tuangafasi , Harris & McNamara

Whitelock was strong but he gave away a penalty after 15 seconds in the second half which is not how you want your leaders to lead and set the tone for the second half.

@bayimports

Yeah he played well too. Up until this game I was worried he was a dud signing

After the Waikato game:

Moorby 3
Tua 2
Nock & CTC 1 each

Season

Tua 5
Moorby 3
Milo-Harris 2
Mau'u 2
Nock 1
Te Whata Colley 1

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks MOTM v Boks II:

@MN5 said in All Blacks MOTM v Boks II:

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks MOTM v Boks II:

@MN5 said in All Blacks MOTM v Boks II:

Only saw the highlights, not the full game but went for Frizell, R Ioane and Savea.

Havilii looked decent too but out of principle I can’t vote for him.

Because Tonga beat Scotland in 2012 and anyone of Tongan descent feels your highland ire a decade later?
I'm guessing this is not true but a decade long burning sense of Utu is a great reason.

Jesus Christ, what a bizarre post.

Really? It was just a test to see if you are like those Scottish men I know who hold obscure grudges that everyone else has forgotten about.

Reminds me that my Glaswegian bro in law used to say 'While the Irish English and Welsh were fighting each other we were fighting our natural enemies: ourselves."

Yeah but I’m from Wellington

Good to see Plummer back

@taniwharugby went for Moorby, Nock and Mau’u. CTC and Tua were up there as well.

Rayasi, Tuipulotu and Dalzell.

@Bovidae said in All Blacks MOTM v Boks I:

@stodders said in All Blacks MOTM v Boks I:

@Bones said in All Blacks MOTM v Boks I:

@Nepia the wish to see players actually doing something and trying fucking hard is strong. He looks like he's trying to lead and getting zero support from his other leaders.

One of the few players to tuck the ball under his arm and propel himself through the Bok defensive line, rather than catch the ball and do a jig before getting smashed.

Only 2 runs for 5 m says Barrett wasn't very effective, which was the point I was making.

But he looks the part doing those two runs.

Tua, Milo, Mau’u for me. Thought the whole forward pack played tough. And we were fit enough to stay in the game.

Sullivan, Vikena and Funaki

@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks MOTM v Ireland III:

@Bones said in All Blacks MOTM v Ireland III:

@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks MOTM v Ireland III:

Would like to see Jordan from 15

My only worry there being he appears to make such poor reads on defence. But yeah like Bower I guess it's maybe not all down to him.

Isn't the defence read issue more of a problem on the wing? At fullback as the last line of defence for the Crusaders I haven't noticed his defensive read issue that much. He does fall off the odd tackle in defence as a fullback but so does Jordie.

It is more of a problem at wing, presumably because he hasn't played there as much (and I think Ioane's communication/organisation is lacking), but he still makes errors at fullback - tends to hang back and let overlaps happen rather than shoot up and take the extra man. he's got the acceleration to be really good at that, but doesn't get the decisions right.

The Stuff player ratings were a joke too. How did Reece get the same score (5) as Ofa?

Rieko, Smith, Bower.

A tough one with a lot of contenders.

@Duluth said in Blues MOTM SR Final:

@KiwiMurph said in Blues MOTM SR Final:

@broughie said in Blues MOTM SR Final:

I still think he needs to run strata lines and use his big body to get over the game line instead of doing his fend thing.

At this point I don't think it's ever going to change. It's like expecting Beauden to start becoming an excellent punter.

One of the work ons that PGS was given was to use foot work going into contact. I'm sure the coaches have metrics about the best ways to get post contact metres or keep the hands free for an offload etc etc

I hope his other work on is falling over the tryline.

@African-Monkey said in Blues MOTM v Brumbies (SF):

Nepo, AJ Lam, and Robinson (in that order).

Went for AJ and Robinson as my top 2.

And despite some rocks, there were some diamonds in there from Beaudie.

HM: R. Ioane, Laulala (best game in ages, perhaps the wet weather was a bit of a leveller in terms of it not being an open expansive game where he has struggled.

Sotutu
Perofeta
BB

Romano is the easy choice for this one. Rest was pretty mixed , but great heart.

Went for Sullivan for drop goal under pressure and Vikina for being a good hooker. Ricitelli is shit.