Hurricanes v Crusaders
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When watching at the stadium, can't tell what the ruck penalties are for, dont really care. Water off a duck's back.
But mother of god, penalty for not releasing quickly enough some submissive weakling who's managed to let his knee brush the grass .... makes me just want to throw my arms up and yell what's the point. Anti-rugby.
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@Duluth said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:
@Winger said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:
Aso and Goosen on the wings and Lam at FB. Lam at FB was first rate for Well during the NPC (I preferred him there to wing) And Aso with his skills has more freedom on the wing than centre
I'd keep the wings and put Rayasi at fullback
Only concern I have here is his defense. Canes have got far too many slack defenders. Last I saw him play (super rugby) it wasn't his strong point.
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@shark said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:
Good game, correct result.
I agree with those lamenting the Canes' selections and/or depth. Too many just aren't high Super Rugby standard, including Tiatia, Goosen, van Wyk, JGB, Booth, Prinsep, Kirifi, Blackwell and Armstrong. Fifita is a flanker who can cover lock but the line-out is far too short with Blackwell and Kirifi simply midgets in their positions. Neither Savea or Prinsep are large by position either. Even if they had some tall timber to replace Blackwell and/or if they had Fifita on the blindside they'd have a much taller line-out. It's hard to see where the Canes get a win from and now they have a bye week to fall further behind the leaders; they'll come back 2-3 wins behind the Blues, Crusaders and Highlanders, albeit with a game in hand on the Blues. Best case for the Canes is Chiefs and 'Landers wins then only two teams have two wins. If the Blues win they have three and the Crusaders would have two and with a bye out the way.
Re the bold, I would say they do: IWL & Scrafton
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@cgrant said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:
@shark said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:
Good game, correct result.
I agree with those lamenting the Canes' selections and/or depth. Too many just aren't high Super Rugby standard, including Tiatia, Goosen, van Wyk, JGB, Booth, Prinsep, Kirifi, Blackwell and Armstrong. Fifita is a flanker who can cover lock but the line-out is far too short with Blackwell and Kirifi simply midgets in their positions. Neither Savea or Prinsep are large by position either. Even if they had some tall timber to replace Blackwell and/or if they had Fifita on the blindside they'd have a much taller line-out. It's hard to see where the Canes get a win from and now they have a bye week to fall further behind the leaders; they'll come back 2-3 wins behind the Blues, Crusaders and Highlanders, albeit with a game in hand on the Blues. Best case for the Canes is Chiefs and 'Landers wins then only two teams have two wins. If the Blues win they have three and the Crusaders would have two and with a bye out the way.
You are harsh on Booth. I think he was OK during the few minutes he was on the field.
The Hurricanes pack needs a big reshuffle. I would go with : Mafileo (or Numia) - Coles - Lomax - IWL - Scrafton - Fifita - Savea - Evans.No Armstrong, Prinsep or Blackwell so a big improvement on what started. Issues. Evans has not been great so far this year. And Fifita is better at lock. But its certainly one option that could be tried
The current defending is 3rd rate. Watched the Blues tries closely and there are just too many slow clumsy poor defending forwards in the Canes. Armstrong is poor but Blackwell isn't far behind. Prinsep also isn't great. That's were the defensive weakness is. So the best defending LH prop would get the nod for me. Both are good enough in the scrum but if the Canes defense continues like it is the team will finish bottom.
But how did these incompetent, joke coaches get the job. Don't they realize that defense (poor esp against the Crusaders) and the line-out (poor in both games) are key parts of the game.
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@Frank said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:
How did Cullen Grace go?
As good as Big Red?
Better than Skinfold Ioane?I thought Grace was strong again physical in contact
He’s going to be good when he grows up impressive for the youngest player in NZ SR teams this season -
@Chris said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:
@Frank said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:
How did Cullen Grace go?
As good as Big Red?
Better than Skinfold Ioane?I thought Grace was strong again physical in contact
He’s going to be good when he grows up impressive for the youngest player in NZ SR teams this seasonHe's got a shoulder and a half eh. Quiet game compared to earlier in the season, but not when you factor in his age and it being the first game back (although I guess you could apply those same factors to Robinson last week also).
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For the Canes, coaching / selection is the major issue.
I can't understand why we persist with selecting guys who just have no impact.
And then we can't hold onto guys that do - 3 ex 1st5's from the Canes playing in the Blues/Chiefs game, but we have JGB.
We let our most exciting new loose forward leave - Ben Nicholas and sign Princep, Evans etc.
If we can't sign new talent, and let new up and coming stars leave in favor of journeymen, I can't see how the team can ever be successful. -
@Darren The Canes never signed TBN, so didn't let him leave. He's just like Mikaele-Tu'u and several others that the Canes never signed, but should have. I'd prefer Mikaele-Tu'u though. Way more effective and stronger than TBN. At least they signed Flanders, but they could have had more.
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@Stargazer said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:
@Darren The Canes never signed TBN, so didn't let him leave. He's just like Mikaele-Tu'u and several others that the Canes never signed, but should have. I'd prefer Mikaele-Tu'u though. Way more effective and stronger than TBN. At least they signed Flanders, but they could have had more.
Never signed is what I meant. Massive selection fail
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@booboo said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:
@shark said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:
Good game, correct result.
I agree with those lamenting the Canes' selections and/or depth. Too many just aren't high Super Rugby standard, including Tiatia, Goosen, van Wyk, JGB, Booth, Prinsep, Kirifi, Blackwell and Armstrong. Fifita is a flanker who can cover lock but the line-out is far too short with Blackwell and Kirifi simply midgets in their positions. Neither Savea or Prinsep are large by position either. Even if they had some tall timber to replace Blackwell and/or if they had Fifita on the blindside they'd have a much taller line-out. It's hard to see where the Canes get a win from and now they have a bye week to fall further behind the leaders; they'll come back 2-3 wins behind the Blues, Crusaders and Highlanders, albeit with a game in hand on the Blues. Best case for the Canes is Chiefs and 'Landers wins then only two teams have two wins. If the Blues win they have three and the Crusaders would have two and with a bye out the way.
Re the bold, I would say they do: IWL & Scrafton
It meant to read 'if they selected the tall timber', not as if I was questioning if they had any in the squad. IWL is injured though, isn't he? Must be, or surely he'd be there. Scrafton is lucky to be a SR player though. If IWL can play, and Fifita moved to 6, then the Canes can afford to carry Blackwell for his work rate and so the props don't get so tired lifting big guys.
I thought Harmon outplayed Kirifi in the battle of the midget openside flankers.
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@shark said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:
then the Canes can afford to carry Blackwell for his work rate and so the props don't get so tired lifting big guys.
Not against good line-out sides. And Blackwell is not a good defender either. Hes too slow and clumsy. And his ball skills are not great either.
It strange he was a player who just made up the numbers (also for Wellington) until Plumtree got a hard on for him during 2019. Hes started for the Canes during 2018 when we had a large number of lock injuries but as soon as those players came back Blackwell was out. Maybe there is another undetected flu that slightly muddles the mind up. For example coaches think line-outs and defense isn't important. And Plumtree caught it and passed it on to the other Canes coaches. It might explain some strange selections
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I moved the AB blindside discussion to this thread:
https://www.forum.thesilverfern.com/topic/3998/ab-depth-chart-2020/165