RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks
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@Duluth said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
@Mattasaurus said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
Akira and Sotutu ( have watched both live in NPC recently) are not lighting the NPC on fire.... really starting to view them both as flat track Auckland schoolboy players.... was hoping Akira would be stung by begin dropped and have a fire lit inside him.... but not from what I have seen in NPC so far ( as someone said earlier there is a bloody good player in him .... just not seeing it yet)--
and Sotutu miles off the pace for international rugby IMO on current formSotutu not in great from.
Akira has been great. In the Auckland player of the match polls he's had two firsts and a second.. and is clearly in the cumulative lead. Topping the stats in almost every game he plays.
Fuck even TJ was praising him for his enormous workrate in the tight and pointed out that not enough people are giving him credit
A bizarre post. I don't know how anyone watching the NPC doesn't recognise how good he is playing
I have no idea why someone like Vaai gets picked over Akira.
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@Duluth individually, maybe. But when they work as a unit, they still provide a decent platform.
Locks are still good enough. I’d like to see BBBR and SB paired up going forward.
Think EDG got schooled a bit tonight. France milked at least one penalty out of him because he allowed himself to over extend. In fairness to him, he learned from it and should have been awarded a penalty at beginning of 2nd half.
Lomax was missed. The drop down to Laulala and Ofa is quite big. Newel was disappointing, but he’s young and will be a good player for years to come.
Think NZ need to pick ST to start the games against the bigger packs. Pointless bringing him on later when you have been under the pump.
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@BerniesCorner said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
The thing is we have some pretty good players
Disagree.
We lack depth in a whole raft of areas - midfield, halfback, lock to name a few. The only area where we seem to have an abundance of talent is 11, 14 & 15 - and after BB & Jordan's performance tonight even that looks pretty thin.
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@Joans-Town-Jones said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
@sparky said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
The reality is that this AB team is very poor. I think Italy have a chance of denying us a Quarter Final spot.
They'll have to beat the other teams by more than us OR, France deliberately lose to them.
And France being France, that's quite possible. I was there that glorious Tongan night at the Cake Tin in 2011!
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@frugby said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
Anyway, I think the biggest thing we have to do, is workout what our best bench is. The best sides have great benches that bring plenty to it.
I think Sami T arguably deserves the start, so I'd go Taylor in 16. Though I don't think he is perfect, I think Williams could bring some impact. Him and Newell, so some good SR continuity. Scooter goes the 80 for me, so perhaps due to his injury issues, we use BBBR as a dynamite option for the last 20. Frizell starts 6, I think they have to call Blackadder in to the squad, or at the very least Finau. Those guys are impact options, they fill 20. Roigard in 21, ALB in 22, Fainga'anuku in 23.
No more ALB please for fuck sake.
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@Victor-Meldrew not a surprise. The u20s haven’t really had a decent vintage for a while and the talent pathways aren’t doing the job they used to, and too many players are leaving NZ to play abroad.
The sound you can hear is chickens coming home to roost.
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@stodders said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
The second 40 was an aberration though.
The whole 80 against the Boks was a aberration. I'd add we need to question why the lessons weren't learned from that.
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@voodoo said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
It’s pretty wild how dependent we have become on Frizell, Scott B and Jordie B, 3 of the dumbest blokes playing rugby 😂
Are you picking on Frizell for his off field antics ?
The Barrett reference is pretty self explanatory though !
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@Victor-Meldrew said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
@BerniesCorner said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
The thing is we have some pretty good players
Disagree.
We lack depth in a whole raft of areas - midfield, halfback, lock to name a few. The only area where we seem to have an abundance of talent is 11, 14 & 15 - and after BB & Jordan's performance tonight even that looks pretty thin.
Look Jordan had a stinker, but he has loads of credit in the bank.
As I said in a previous thread Beauden Barrett has 113 caps now. HIs first 70 were fairy tale stuff.
The last 40 or so. Absolute trash.
He is one of my favourite Allblacks of all time (I've backed him at 100/1 for top try scorer), but he is a massive problem. Not only because he is playing crap, but because accommodating him omits other players we could do with and he gets in Mo'ungas way.
Get Jordan to fullback and have a power winger in 11 or 14 with Telea on the opposite side.
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France missed 32 tackles tonight. Not often that happens to an Edwards coached defence. NZ couldn’t capitalise on this, especially in the first half.
France got pumped by NZ in the pool game in 2011 and lost to Tonga. They ended up losing by a point in the final, after a mutiny against their coach.
Strange things happen at world cups 😬
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@Joans-Town-Jones
Oakville -
@stodders said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
France missed 32 tackles tonight. Not often that happens to an Edwards coached defence. NZ couldn’t capitalise on this, especially in the first half.
ABs finished ahead on lots of things carry metres, rucks, ruck speed etc etc
Key ones we lost: penalties (4-12 I think?) and kicking metres was way behind
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@stodders said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
Going forward - discipline and handling needs to be so much better. Every time NZ looked like they were stretching France, they either dropped the ball or got isolated and pinged. You can’t let teams like France, Ireland and SA have 12 penalties to play with.
France were blowing hard at times. NZ let them off the hook with poor execution and lack of discipline. Both are fixable.
JB and SF returning will be a big boost. BBBR returning and starting with SB will add some ballast and power.
BB has to be on borrowed time now. Wouldn’t surprise me if DM gets a run at FB in Italy test.
CR to take his chance and force himself onto the bench by QF.
If TL returns by end of the pool, that’s quite a lot of changes/improvements from the 23 seen tonight.
Impressive use of initials.
But stop giving me hope.
It may be a stages of grief thing but my mindset is changing.
My expectation has gone and I'm now just going to watch the footy and enjoy the event. I'll still watch with hope, but no expectation.
Is this what normal fans feel like?
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Its a pity Stevenson and/or Jordan did not get more minutes at 15 previously.
We also severely lack a Levi Aumua type at 12. It's just a necessity in international rugby now. You need someone to cart it up.
Fosters in and out Hokey Cokey selection policy has left a fair few guys not knowing where they stand. Roigard, DMAC, Jacobsen, Finau...I could go on. It's all over the place and has been for a few years. Perofeta (1 minute against Ireland), Sowakula, RTS, Ennor. Rightly or wrongly loads of blokes got messed around. Faingaanuku was in the wilderness for a longtime too.
We looked magic against Argentina with DMAC and then foster just ripped it all up.
I cannot get my head around his tenure at all. He is all over the place.
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We've got one last throw of the dice.
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@MN5 said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
@voodoo said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
It’s pretty wild how dependent we have become on Frizell, Scott B and Jordie B, 3 of the dumbest blokes playing rugby 😂
Are you picking on Frizell for his off field antics ?
The Barrett reference is pretty self explanatory though !
I could be being unfair to on-field Frizz to be fair
Still - 3 blokes who know one way and that’s straight up the guts. Shows that at the end of the day, rugby often doesn’t have to be that complicated.
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@pjay no team used to play like ABs either, but back in 2015, the players available were better and could execute the game plan. There wasn’t a team around that was close to them.
Trouble is, you have to cut your cloth accordingly. First Hansen, then Foster have been trying to do the same thing with a good, but not great, crop of players. Sometimes they are able to execute to the same standard, but because they lack the quality, discipline and focus of that 2015 crop, they drop the ball more often. The basics are just not executed as well.
