AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?
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@Stargazer I’m with you. Haven’t read any posts but presumably ragging on about how Bridge is average. Personally I think he is all class. There is a reason why the Crusaders win all the time. Their whole team does their job and their players make better decisions more often. Something other franchises can only aspire too. The Blues are repeat offenders in this regard.
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@Stargazer Bridge is an amazing player and his style suits test rugby where one dropped ball, one time out of position loses the game. He just reads the game so well. For some reason, the Fern gets a frontal lobotomy about some players and are proven wrong again and again. Why you would get upset over it?
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@mariner4life said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@junior said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@mariner4life said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
Ardie at 8? Yuck
Yep. That's particularly concerning when we've got two big, quick and skilful guys who are specialists in that position in the squad.
He's a fucking 7.
Talk about ignoring lessons
And the premier 7 at that.
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@kev said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@Stargazer I’m with you. Haven’t read any posts but presumably ragging on about how Bridge is average. Personally I think he is all class. There is a reason why the Crusaders win all the time. Their whole team does their job and their players make better decisions more often. Something other franchises can only aspire too. The Blues are repeat offenders in this regard.
No one on this forum has said that Bridge is a shit player. He's decent under the high ball, runs decent support lines, runs fast enough in a straight line and is generally a low error player. He'd probably be a great right wing. The problem is that he plays on the left and he's currently keeping out two of the more dynamic and powerful ball runners in NZ rugby at time when we are lacking a bit in dynamic and powerful runners in NZ rugby. Remember all those breaks and extra yards Bridge made last year against England when we couldn't get any go forward anywhere else on the park? Yeah, me neither.
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@Old-Samurai-Jack said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@Stargazer Bridge is an amazing player and his style suits test rugby where one dropped ball, one time out of position loses the game. He just reads the game so well. For some reason, the Fern gets a frontal lobotomy about some players and are proven wrong again and again. Why you would get upset over it?
Yeah and that's why he should switch to the right wing.
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@Machpants said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@shark only fern are ignoring lessons, ABs coaches are all talking specialist and Ardie as a7 who can play 8
That makes zero sense.
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@shark said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@Machpants said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@shark only fern are ignoring lessons, ABs coaches are all talking specialist and Ardie as a7 who can play 8
That makes zero sense.
Sorry that should have been at the message you were quoting.
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@mariner4life said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@junior said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@mariner4life said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
Ardie at 8? Yuck
Yep. That's particularly concerning when we've got two big, quick and skilful guys who are specialists in that position in the squad.
He's a fucking 7.
Talk about ignoring lessons
ABs coaches see him as a 7 who plays 8, and are pushing the specialists are important line. So I think it's the fern ignoring lessons, not the coaches
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@junior said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@kev said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@Stargazer I’m with you. Haven’t read any posts but presumably ragging on about how Bridge is average. Personally I think he is all class. There is a reason why the Crusaders win all the time. Their whole team does their job and their players make better decisions more often. Something other franchises can only aspire too. The Blues are repeat offenders in this regard.
No one on this forum has said that Bridge is a shit player. He's decent under the high ball, runs decent support lines, runs fast enough in a straight line and is generally a low error player. He'd probably be a great right wing. The problem is that he plays on the left and he's currently keeping out two of the more dynamic and powerful ball runners in NZ rugby at time when we are lacking a bit in dynamic and powerful runners in NZ rugby. Remember all those breaks and extra yards Bridge made last year against England when we couldn't get any go forward anywhere else on the park? Yeah, me neither.
Remember all those breaks and extra yards any All black made? Bit tough when your pack is scuttling backwards
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@junior said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@kev said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@Stargazer I’m with you. Haven’t read any posts but presumably ragging on about how Bridge is average. Personally I think he is all class. There is a reason why the Crusaders win all the time. Their whole team does their job and their players make better decisions more often. Something other franchises can only aspire too. The Blues are repeat offenders in this regard.
No one on this forum has said that Bridge is a shit player. He's decent under the high ball, runs decent support lines, runs fast enough in a straight line and is generally a low error player. He'd probably be a great right wing. The problem is that he plays on the left and he's currently keeping out two of the more dynamic and powerful ball runners in NZ rugby at time when we are lacking a bit in dynamic and powerful runners in NZ rugby. Remember all those breaks and extra yards Bridge made last year against England when we couldn't get any go forward anywhere else on the park? Yeah, me neither.
Garbage. Bridge is CONSTANTLY roasted on TSF and labelled a boring 'skinny white boy' and now 'safe white boy'.
He won't keep anyone out if their form and pressure warrants usurping him. Clarke may be in that position.
As for it being Bridges' fault we didn't put England under pressure, well, this is a helluva thing to put on a winger when the rest of the team is playing like a bag of assholes.
A far better comparison for Bridge as opposed to Caleb Ralph, is Doug Howlett. Both quick, both relatively safe players, great finishers and both can cover fullback.
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@kev said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@Stargazer There is a reason why the Crusaders win all the time. Their whole team does their job and their players make better decisions more often. Something other franchises can only aspire too. The Blues are repeat offenders in this regard.
Yes cos if the history of Super Rugby has taught us anything it's that Crusaders have a production line of world class wingers and the Blues really struggle with producing wingers....
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@Machpants I mean, what do you mean about the Fern not having learned lessons and how does that relate to poeple saying Ardie is a 7?
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@Old-Samurai-Jack said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@junior said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@kev said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@Stargazer I’m with you. Haven’t read any posts but presumably ragging on about how Bridge is average. Personally I think he is all class. There is a reason why the Crusaders win all the time. Their whole team does their job and their players make better decisions more often. Something other franchises can only aspire too. The Blues are repeat offenders in this regard.
No one on this forum has said that Bridge is a shit player. He's decent under the high ball, runs decent support lines, runs fast enough in a straight line and is generally a low error player. He'd probably be a great right wing. The problem is that he plays on the left and he's currently keeping out two of the more dynamic and powerful ball runners in NZ rugby at time when we are lacking a bit in dynamic and powerful runners in NZ rugby. Remember all those breaks and extra yards Bridge made last year against England when we couldn't get any go forward anywhere else on the park? Yeah, me neither.
Remember all those breaks and extra yards any All black made? Bit tough when your pack is scuttling backwards
Yeah, but that's why a guy like Clarke or Ioane is gold - they can both beat a man from a standing start and even when going backwards. Sometimes, that's all you need to then buy the rest of your team the time and space to create opportunities to score points.
Yes, it's a bit harsh on Bridge because he wasn't the only one on the park who failed to go forward at all. But, unfortunately for him, he gets picked on because he's the one keeping out a couple of the few guys who can do what we sorely missed. To my mind, Reece is far and away the bigger problem but he's not the one keeping those guys out. That's why I say that Bridge should make a switch to the right wing, because he'll definitely get selected ahead of Reece (but maybe not ahead of Jordan now).
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@shark said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
Both quick, both relatively safe players, great finishers and both can cover fullback.
He looks like he should be playing fullback to me. That's not going to happen at the Crusaders so we'll probably never know
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@shark said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@junior said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@kev said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@Stargazer I’m with you. Haven’t read any posts but presumably ragging on about how Bridge is average. Personally I think he is all class. There is a reason why the Crusaders win all the time. Their whole team does their job and their players make better decisions more often. Something other franchises can only aspire too. The Blues are repeat offenders in this regard.
No one on this forum has said that Bridge is a shit player. He's decent under the high ball, runs decent support lines, runs fast enough in a straight line and is generally a low error player. He'd probably be a great right wing. The problem is that he plays on the left and he's currently keeping out two of the more dynamic and powerful ball runners in NZ rugby at time when we are lacking a bit in dynamic and powerful runners in NZ rugby. Remember all those breaks and extra yards Bridge made last year against England when we couldn't get any go forward anywhere else on the park? Yeah, me neither.
Garbage. Bridge is CONSTANTLY roasted on TSF and labelled a boring 'skinny white boy' and now 'safe white boy'.
He won't keep anyone out if their form and pressure warrants usurping him. Clarke may be in that position.
As for it being Bridges' fault we didn't put England under pressure, well, this is a helluva thing to put on a winger when the rest of the team is playing like a bag of assholes.
A far better comparison for Bridge as opposed to Caleb Ralph, is Doug Howlett. Both quick, both relatively safe players, great finishers and both can cover fullback.
When has Bridge ever covered fullback?
And what is it with you bloody Cantabs and your complete absence of reading comprehension? Is it because you've all only got one eye?
I never said that he was solely to blame for England beating us (that's Scott Barrett's fault, obvs) - I said that he gets a hard time because he was keeping out one of the few guys in our team last year with the ability to beat a man. If Ioane played on the right wing, then Reece would be copping it.
And yes, you can have a go at your backs for not having power and the ability to beat a man when your entire nation of forwards don't have that either. It needs to come from somewhere and we had at least one guy sitting in the stands who could bring that.
