Crusaders v Blues
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Bridge was outstanding tonight. I dont think Ben lam does enough when he's not being fed the ball on the edge. He really goes missing in games
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Blues have lost 3 line outs since NeeNee and Moulds went off. Disappointing finish for The Blues they played well for long passages of the game, but the backs had no plan of attack and pretty sloppy in defence. Just shows the bench once again coming on with poor timing in the game.
Good to see the Blues scrum smash the Crusaders, without Ofa..... -
@northlandallday said in Crusaders v Blues:
Blues have lost 3 line outs since NeeNee and Moulds went off. Disappointing finish for The Blues they played well for long passages of the game, but the backs had no plan of attack and pretty sloppy in defence. Just shows the bench once again coming on with poor timing in the game.
Good to see the Blues scrum smash the Crusaders, without Ofa.....Forgetting the attacking lineout Moulds threw to Sam Whitelock?
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@kiwimurph said in Crusaders v Blues:
@canerbry said in Crusaders v Blues:
@machpants said in Crusaders v Blues:
Nice try Auckland, with a change of coach and a bit of luck maybe they could finish as high as 11th next year.What i like about this is the originalty.
Hey I didn't say that, you need to change your quote
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@steven-harris Heard anything interesting about the squads etc?
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@kirwan said in Crusaders v Blues:
@northlandallday said in Crusaders v Blues:
Blues have lost 3 line outs since NeeNee and Moulds went off. Disappointing finish for The Blues they played well for long passages of the game, but the backs had no plan of attack and pretty sloppy in defence. Just shows the bench once again coming on with poor timing in the game.
Good to see the Blues scrum smash the Crusaders, without Ofa.....Forgetting the attacking lineout Moulds threw to Sam Whitelock?
There was that 1 line out, which Saders quite rightly had to compete in, you can blame Moulds if you like but the jumper got out muscled as well. The point I was making is changing both players at the same time is not a good coaching decision, particularly when that's one aspect of the game that worked well for the game - bar one throw to that point.
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Thought all the Crusaders backs went pretty well. MOM could be a toss-up between Goodhue, Bridge, Big Seta and Mo'unga.
Thought Israel got better the longer the game went, but I can't see him holding Havili out.
If Moody is available (and I hope he is), I wondered who might sit on the bench behind him - come on down Wyatt. Perry needs more footy to hone his scrummaging, but he's been a penalty magnet in general play as long as I've watched him.
I think Romano on the bench ahead of Strange as well.
Think Crotty's hand was the only significant injury - hopefully that is OK.
Come on the Jags - I think I'll be happy enough to play the Rebs next week. Only times I've watched the Sharks this year was during their NZ tour and they were quite impressive.
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@tim No not a whole lot of info going around at the minute,if I hear anything will keep you informed.
Semi finals of the Gallagher Sheilds next weekend,
University play College Rifles at home
Ponsonby play Eden at home.In the Northland club final Kamo play Waipu at Toll Stadium..
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@steven-harris Hope some of the club games are streaming, should be some good competition.
Big win for East Coast Bays over Massey today too.
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Thinking about Bridge, if Duffy can make the All Blacks then he can.
He’s very fast, and the ABs would like he can cover fullback.
Can he play on the right wing? Reiko has 11 sown up, It’s Naholo’s natural position and Lam is knocking on the door too.
On the right wing we really only have Ben Smith, who looks better at fullback and isn’t looking as sharp as previous years.
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Great game from Goodhue, Bridge, Tamanivalu and Mo'unga the stand-outs tonight. Good effort from the Blues in the first half, but mainly benefiting from Crusaders' mistakes and not creating much. A few very good scrums though, among them the one that led to the penalty try.
Radio commentary with Corey Flynn was very good; not wearing an eye patch. I can't remember exactly what he said at the beginning of the game, but he explained well what he thinks Akira is doing wrong and why he may struggle to get that AB spot if he doesn't improve. I wish I had recorded it.
I'm starting to change my mind on Bridge and think he may be a future AB prospect. He made some huge tackles during this game, most notably in the first half against Kaino, Akira and another big player (I can't remember who it was). He has an incredible work rate. I think he's better than Lam because Lam is a bit of a one trick pony and faded away strongly during the season. I think the only thing stopping him from being picked for the EOYT is the queue, but he's very Ben Smith like and he may have a good chance after the RWC (and hence, another year in SR). He's only in his 2nd SR season, so he has time on his side and I also don't see Naholo staying in NZ after the RWC.
Commiserations to all Blues supporters for the season. It's awful to see your team struggle year after year. Let's hope Leon MacDonald (and Coventry if he joins the coaching staff) will be able to bring the necessary improvement.
