MotM vs South Africa II
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Whitelock, Read and Crotty all prominent, DMac as well.
Lots of pretty early substitutions probably rule out a lot of contenders compared to those who played 90 minutes. Most people were pretty good, no-one poor.
Of my Makos men, I thought Squire was a bit quiet early on - stationed on the flank and the ball didn't seem to go his way, but came into his own as the game wore on. Hames did much better than in SA.v1 - a pretty serviceable test. Dreyer seems to be one of those props who's not particularly good, but has some tricks that make him awkward until he's worked out.
Havili having a dream start to his AB career - have to admit I had some doubts and thought Super rugby was probably his ceiling. More than solid for probably 5th choice fullback. Pretty pleased we didn't see him in the midfield, though.
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@chris-b IMO Havili is pretty good in the midfield; he proved that in SR in 2016 when they finally started picking him over Fonotia. I think, the reason why it didn't work in this year's Crusaders games, had nothing to do with him, and everything to do with Crotty not playing. If it had been Goodhue who was injured instead of Crotty, and they'd played Crotty and Havili as a combo, the team would have played better in those games. The Crusaders, and also the All Blacks in the games without Crotty, struggled due to his absence.
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@stargazer I think Dave's solid enough in the midfield - the selectors obviously thought so and, given Crotty's a bit of an injury magnet at present, there's a reasonable probability that he might have had to play substantial minutes there.
BUT - he really only covers second-five. He's probably played centre at some point for someone, but I can't say I recall it. so if Crotty went down, SBW would probably have moved to centre (unless Ioane did) - a bit more disruption.
In terms of Havili as a midfielder, I can probably come up with 10 options I'd prefer to see playing there.
In approximate order: Crotty, SBW, ALB, Laumape, Goodhue, Ngatai, Tamanivalu, Ioane, Buckman, maybe Bateman, Moala, Thompson.
Some of the later ones are much of a muchness with DH and he gets credit for being so good in the AB jersey so far!
The first six I've got as being a long way better, though. -
Crotty, Skudder and Whitelock.
DMac, Laulala and Ioane the next best.
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I went for Squire, Crotty and DMac. Squire's drives were powerful and he did not slipped many tackles.
Everything Crotty did was OK, as usual.
DMac, except one knock on, was outstanding.
BB and NMS were very good till they left the field.
Ofa T produced another very solid performance while Havili was decisive.
