Blues v Crusaders
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<p>Wow, Kieran Read must have some hidden tar brush going by the bro handshake him and Kaino did at the end.</p>
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<p>Good game of rugby. I think the Blues can feel disappointed with the result but not with how they played. Crusaders will happy to get a tough win. </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tim" data-cid="583527" data-time="1464427403"><p>Everyone loves to bag the Blues, but their forward pack is as good as any team in the competition. Nine, ten, and twelve are problems, but they're not that far away. <br>
Get a new attack coach.</p></blockquote>
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Blues bench is also a huge problem. -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Nepia" data-cid="583530" data-time="1464427557">
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<p>Wow, Kieran Read must have some hidden tar brush going by the bro handshake him and Kaino did at the end.</p>
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<p>Good game of rugby. I think the Blues can feel disappointed with the result but not with how they played. Crusaders will happy to get a tough win. </p>
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<p>He did grow up in South Auckland</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="KiwiMurph" data-cid="583529" data-time="1464427538">
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<p>Good game. Kaino owned Taufua. Blues did bloody well but their bench is really substandard.</p>
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<p>Yup Kaino really stood up tonight, taught Taufua a lesson. Hard loss to take but we gave it our all so no complaints here. West missing Fonotia virtually sealed our fate. Well done to the Crusaders, keeping their composure when it counted most.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Nepia" data-cid="583525" data-time="1464426842">
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<p>Even just a scrum for the accidental. Add that to the Duffie penalty and the Mo'unga offside and that's a decent run of 50/50 calls going one way. </p>
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<p>I smell a gold watch heading Fraser's way. ;)</p>
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<p>I actually thought Fraser had a really good first half.</p>
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<p>FTR, Angus Gardner was the ref. Fraser did the Highlanders game.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tim" data-cid="583527" data-time="1464427403">
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<p>Everyone loves to bag the Blues, but their forward pack is as good as any team in the competition. Nine, ten, and twelve are problems, but they're not that far away.<br><br>
Get a new attack coach.</p>
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<p>Blues were great, tbh. They really stood up. I still think the Crusaders probably edged them in the forwards. 12 will sort itself out when they put Moala there. No clue what you do about 9/10.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tim" data-cid="583536" data-time="1464428390">
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<p>AB loose forwards after this weekend:<br><br>
Kaino<br>
Luatua<br>
Cane<br>
Savea<br>
Read<br><br>
Do we need another? Especially with Whitelock injured and Vito off.</p>
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<p>I would like to fit Dixon in somewhere.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tim" data-cid="583536" data-time="1464428390"><p>AB loose forwards after this weekend:<br>
Kaino<br>
Luatua<br>
Cane<br>
Savea<br>
Read<br>
Do we need another? Especially with Whitelock injured and Vito off.</p></blockquote>
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Those are the top five loose forwards. Dixon and Todd are next. One of them will get the call, my guess is Dixon. MoM in last year's Super Final and excellent for most of the Highlanders games this year. -
<p>Fonotia repays a bit of his debt for the misses on Faddes.</p>
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<p>I was hoping the Blues were going to fall behind, lose enthusiasm and energy and hand us a bonus point win. I think our players might have been expecting the same. It didn't work out that way and after 60 minutes I was getting pretty worried.</p>
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<p>I think we missed Sam Whitelock, especially at lineout time. The Blues surely had a taller lineout than us, but we still edged them there. Sammy is probably the best lineout forward in the world these days and Read is probably the best "third option".</p>
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<p>We played too much side-to-side in the wet. Needed a bit more straight running and maybe a few more inside balls (not the one given to FFABJM).</p>
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<p>Still - points banked away from home. Always useful.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MN5" data-cid="583532" data-time="1464427732">
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<p>He did grow up in South Auckland</p>
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<p>You beat me to it , papakura boy </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tim" data-cid="583523" data-time="1464426553">
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<p>Pretty shabby refereeing. Blues penalised twice for obstruction this half. Pathetic not to pick up Ellis.</p>
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<p>Agree about the refereeing. The Blues should have got a yellow in the first half ... ;)</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tim" data-cid="583528" data-time="1464427495">
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<p>Will be a good game against the Canes. I think we'll beat the two Aussie teams.</p>
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<p>Hmm, not the easiest Aussie teams though, but should be possible. The Blues have been so inconsistent this year; it depends on which Blues team turns up, I guess.</p> -
<p>I hate that 'diving on the emerging ball' law that the Crusaders got pinged for in front of the posts late in the game.</p>
<p>Such a stupid law. It's either in the ruck or out and free game. In this case i thought it was clearly out and the players were competing for the loose ball. I don't really see the point of it.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Stargazer" data-cid="583557" data-time="1464435771">
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<p>Hmm, not the easiest Aussie teams though, but should be possible. The Blues have been so inconsistent this year; it depends on which Blues team turns up, I guess.</p>
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<p>Hardly inconsistent. We've lost the games we were expected to lose and won the games we've expected to win apart from the Reds game. The only really bad performance w've had was against the Lions.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="African Monkey" data-cid="583559" data-time="1464436050">
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<p>Hardly inconsistent. We've lost the games we were expected to lose and won the games we've expected to win apart from the Reds game. The only really bad performance w've had was against the Lions.</p>
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<p>They were consistent because the results were according to expectation? Strange reasoning. You'd think it would be because they played consistently good or consistently bad. They weren't expected to beat the Highlanders, but they <em>just</em> did. After that win, the Blues were expected to beat the Canes (who had lost their two first games, including their disaster loss to the Brumbies), but they didn't. They beat the Force last week, but weren't playing well at all and it could have gone the other way if the Force had taken their chances at the end. They were pretty lucky against the Jaguares but played much better against the Chiefs & on another day might have beaten them. As a neutral, I call that inconsistent. </p> -
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">As published on the Planet Rugby website:</span></span><br>
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<p><span style="font-size:18px;"><strong><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Crotty and Havili cited</span></strong></span><br>
<br><span style="font-size:12px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">May 28 2016</span></span><br>
<br><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Crusaders duo Ryan Crotty and David Havili have been cited following their 26-21 Super Rugby win over the Blues at Eden Park on Saturday.</span></span><br>
<br><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Crotty has been issued with a Citing Commissioner Warning for contravening Law 10.4 (e) Dangerous Tackling during the hard-fought victory.</span></span><br>
<br><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The incident occurred in the 80th minute of the game. Whilst attempting a tackle on Ihaia West, Crotty made contact with the player's head.</span></span><br>
<br><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">A Citing Commissioner Warning may be issued by the SANZAAR Citing Commissioner for foul play incidents that are very close to, but in his opinion do not meet the Red Card threshold for citings.</span></span><br>
<br><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">In this case the referee for the match did not act upon the incident. Upon further review of the match footage the Citing Commissioner deemed a Citing Commissioner Warning was appropriate.</span></span><br>
<br><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, Havili is alleged to have contravened Law 10.4 (a) Punching or Striking during the match.</span></span><br>
<br><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Havili is alleged to have made contact with a swinging arm to the neck of the Blues centre Piers Francis.</span></span><br>
<br><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Upon further review of the match footage, the Citing Commissioner deemed in his opinion the incident had met the red card threshold for foul play.</span></span><br>
<br><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The citing is to be considered in the first instance by SANZAAR Duty Judicial Officer Michael Heron QC.</span></span><br>
<br><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">All SANZAAR disciplinary matters are in the first instance referred to a Duty Judicial Officer hearing to provide the option of expediting the judicial process.</span></span><br>
<br><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">For a matter to be dispensed with at this hearing, the person appearing must plead guilty and accept the penalty offered by the DJO.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Glad Crotty's possible All Blacks selection is not at stake with a warning; it looked accidental to me because West was already going down.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Am a bit surprised by the citing of Havili; would like to see the footage again before I form an opinion of it. I don't remember it looking that serious; not more than Francis action v Mo'unga anyway (in which Mo'unga's head hit the ground). Strangely enough (in that light), Francis has not been cited.</span></span></p>
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<p>Because basically the procedure forces players to admit guilt (to avoid a full hearing), a suspension is almost unavoidable unless the QC doesn't agree with the citing commissioner from the start. As Havili no doubt was going to play club rugby during the June break, I wonder how long his suspension is going to be if a suspension is imposed.</p> -
<p>Great game. Crusaders able to keep their composure and a missed tackle by West became the difference. What to do with Moala? His game has improved heaps and he not longer loses the ball in the tackle but is he an AB 12 or 13. I know he has played on the wing but I would like to think we have more pace players who naturally play wing/FB for that position. Pryor did what I expect from him and had 3 dumb penalties I noted. Some players just do stupid things and can't shake it. Blues forward went well and their scrum pretty well considering the opposition.</p>