Mea Culpae
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Yes, plural.
Time to acknowledge that certain players I've written off have improved over their careers or their impact is much better than I expected. To that end, apologies to:
Ofa Tu'ungafasi - Couldn't scrum, gave away dumb penalties, slow to get off the ground. Today was the type of game I hope he could take into the All Blacks.
Alex Hodgman - Couldn't scrum for shit. Now not a concern, big impact around the ground which is a clear concern for the All Blacks.
Christie Finlay - Couldn't scrum, still can't. His inclusion into the All Blacks must've been last years success story. HIs option taking and speed of service at the breakdown is vastly improved to the point the ginger migrant is IMO the second best halfback in New Zealand. His improvement in the last 18 months is immense.
Luke Romano - Have to admit he's playing like he has something to prove and in doing so, his tight work and experience is benefitting the Blues. Much better than I thought he'd be.
I reserve the right to add more to this thread.
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Good thread idea!
Charlie Faumuina, I'm sorry for bagging you man. I miss you, it was me, not you.
I'll have more to add here as well, separate to yours, as I've run down all of the above you mentioned, so I wont bother with them. I'm going to revisit this thread again too, but for today:
This is fucking hard to write, but the Chiefs would be a far more dangeroous team if we'd kept Sevu Reece. I hope that it was something about the move that helped him become so dangerous, but he is 100% percent that and can change games.
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@antipodean said in Mea Culpae:
Christie Finlay
Yeah I'll double down on that one. Thought it was a joke when he was selected for the ABs and he was flakey as fuck. Seems the environment brought the best out of him and he's certainly brought that improvement back into super rugby and gone a couple of steps further.
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@bones yep, me too. I thought he was barely any less flaky than the other 9s the blues had last year, but he has clearly thrived being in the AB environment and taken his game to a New level, several higher in fact, speed to ruck is superb, plus the ground he covers on defence is outstanding, supremely fit.
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@taniwharugby said in Mea Culpae:
@bones yep, me too. I thought he was barely any less flaky than the other 9s the blues had last year, but he has clearly thrived being in the AB environment and taken his game to a New level, several higher in fact, speed to ruck is superb, plus the ground he covers on defence is outstanding, supremely fit.
He even knocks himself out he is that keen.
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@antipodean said in Mea Culpae:
Yes, plural.
Time to acknowledge that certain players I've written off have improved over their careers or their impact is much better than I expected. To that end, apologies to:
Ofa Tu'ungafasi - Couldn't scrum, gave away dumb penalties, slow to get off the ground. Today was the type of game I hope he could take into the All Blacks.
Alex Hodgman - Couldn't scrum for shit. Now not a concern, big impact around the ground which is a clear concern for the All Blacks.
Christie Finlay - Couldn't scrum, still can't. His inclusion into the All Blacks must've been last years success story. HIs option taking and speed of service at the breakdown is vastly improved to the point the ginger migrant is IMO the second best halfback in New Zealand. His improvement in the last 18 months is immense.
Luke Romano - Have to admit he's playing like he has something to prove and in doing so, his tight work and experience is benefitting the Blues. Much better than I thought he'd be.
I reserve the right to add more to this thread.
I also should've said I reserve the right to edit this thread.
Christie I was right about all along. Last year was a clear aberration.
Ofa back to being the dumb fluffybunny we all know. And with the added bonus he's forgotten how to scrum.
