BOP v Taranaki
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Knock on for me.
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@antipodean Edit: I'm not sure anymore.
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@stargazer I think the problem lies with the requirement for "clear and obvious". There would've been significant doubt in anyone's mind, and I'd have been happy for it to be a scrum.
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Nice step by Kneepkens there. Completely did the covering winger.
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It's like Bay have woken up all a bit too late.
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Extremely disappointed with BOP. Some real skill gaps. Other teams have defence plans around the ruck area. The coaches need to take a good look at their tactics. Telegraphing passes to the one off runners makes them easier to defend. Sick of seeing them held up over the line by clever defence. The kicking game needs to get smarter. Chargedowns and kicking dead with no pressure are avoidable mostly. But the worst thing is a lack of urgency when defending breaks.
I. E. The skills shown are not up to npc level for a team that looks so much better on paper.
Broughton Tosi and Tiatia put in good shifts. Some bigger names need to stand up.
Well done Taranaki. Great penetration and determination. Lord Perofeta the loosies and wingers were all so good today. -
One of the intriguing things about this season is highlighted by Daryl Gibson's own words:
"He's really lifted training, obviously having the All Black captain in our team is a real lift for our players. Certainly to see him train at the intensity he trains at for our younger players and even our senior pros, to know that's the level you've got to be at if you want to be at the very best." (Source: Rugby: All Blacks skipper Sam Cane charts return to rugby after long layoff )
While you'd expect the All Blacks captain to lift standards at training, the couple of pre-lockdown training sessions I stumbled across looked relatively chilled. To be fair, not every session can be run at 100%, but so far it's not looking good on the park against better prepared teams.
The coaching team can genuinely point to injuries. I suppose it's hard to know how much preparation comes into some injuries, or not.
