@kiwiinmelb agreed. Terrible vs Argentina, mediocre vs boks, not bad vs oz, dropped.

@Nevorian said in Bledisloe #2:

look out for plenty of cross field kicks but hopefully we will improve our possession stats

Well kicking the ball away is half our possession problem...

surely that's not actually the team?
forwards play like pussies so drop the wingers?

If we're not sure about a replacement props scrummaging, then surely at some point - in these pre-WC games - you throw him in the deep end to start. that's how you see if they're up to it against fresh, first-strong opposition props. If they go well you get the benefits they give around the field for 60 mins, if they get rogered, you sub them off and fix the scrum with the reliable old bloke.
especially when hansen has been making noises about wanting more from the props all year.

What a flogging we copped. All the criticisms of the past couple of years coming home to roost. Great blend of hysteria and scattergun blame from the fern, and even some bizarre optimism about how despite being comprehensively outplayed with 15 men in the first half, the result is all down to the 14 man second half.

Point 1: as usual, we kick the ball away. Too many try to be clever shit short kicks. We've been doing this for years, and it's low percentage crap. That and handling errors - largely from poor passing decisions - gave us no ball.
Point 2: our tackling was shit. Had to make way too many due to possession, they were making the advantage line at will... and then we had to do it with 14 men.

Crap being spouted:
It's Mounga's fault. No, Barrett has been at 10 for a number of shit performances leading up to this. Mounga's defence is crap. No, it's not. Stats say better than most. He's not being hidden on the wing as suggested, he and Barrett are frequently defending as dual fullbacks, it's part of the 2 playmakers plan. I hate to think what would be being said if he got run over like Barrett did.
The midfield is shit. Well goodhue was very good then went off after what, 10 mins? Bit rough to judge a disrupted midfield when forwards are getting owned all day.
Ben Smith is now too slow. He's never been fast for an outside back. He's quick on his feet, very well balanced and great in contact. Much like Corey Jane in that regard. He's always been a better fullback than winger, but he is hardly to blame for this beating.
Savea and Cane is a disaster which will never work. Well, name the available 6 who would have improved things? Losing a lock and playing with 7 forwards isn't a fair trial for a lightweight loose trio. Most concerns pregame were lineout, which was fine. Bugger all people were concerned in advance re tackling etc, cause Cane tackles like a 6.
Coles should be an impact player. Seriously, what the fuck is this about? Best forward by a country mile and we should bench him?

Will be interesting to see how they use the loose trio. numbers on the teamsheet don't necessarily tell that story so i'll hold fire on that one for now, though savea is certainly the furthest from our recent style 6 of the 3. he has to be on the park now though, too good to leave out. read is lucky there isn't another loosie demanding selection, cause i think he'd have to be the one to make way.
i really like the team selected as a whole, great to see them persist with mounga/barrett, and finally ALB/goodhue. have high hopes but don't have huge expectations performance-wise in this game though, combinations take time to gel.

The cross kick is horribly overdone, particularly by Barrett. Ioane being shit in that one game is not that big a deal, but it's also not down to the midfield or lack of cross kicks. It's because he dropped just about every single thing that was thrown to him.

@mariner4life said in AB squad for the Rugby Championship:

Fuck Luatua would be pretty handy right now

Fucken right he would. Mismanaged badly, and what did we get for it? A few caps for Luke whitelock to then be discarded?

I tend to think crotty has just been really unlucky injury wise with test footy, as stated by others his super rugby record is good. Also at least when he plays he's been good, not like sbw. I just don't see how you can carry a guy who gets penalised every game, who turns the ball over multiple times a game, who is frequently injured - unless he is absolutely brilliant - and I haven't seen much brilliance for a long time now. Imagine if #s 1 to 23 all made a similar number of errors to sbw per game: every single game would be even more disjointed than the last 2 piles of shit we've been subjected to.

@Chris-B said in AB squad for the Rugby Championship:

@reprobate said in AB squad for the Rugby Championship:

@Chris-B said in AB squad for the Rugby Championship:

@Billy-Tell In the props I think it will be Moli vs Perry and Ta'avao vs Laulala. Tim Perry has played one game and five minutes of another this year, so loosehead is Moli's to lose.

Basically Angus vs Nepo and I think Angus' mobility will win it for him.

I heard Sumo on the radio saying the selections are indicative that the ABs are hellbent on playing the game at pace, which rings true.

I wouldn't write Josh Ioane out of the equation yet. If they are planning on playing Richie and Beauden together in the big games then that's lots of workload and even more risk of a first five injury. If Beauden is slated to play fullback I'd take Ioane and probably leave Jordie at home.

has josh played much fullback? i like him, he has the skills, but jeez, not much experience - a big part of the 2 playmakers experiment on the weekend (which hasn't got much discussion on here) was us defending with 2 fullbacks - and they were more often than not barrett and mounga... and that's with ben smiith on a wing.
i reckon if we get an injury to barrett or mounga we'd be straight back to smith at fullback and the old gameplan. mckenzie could slot in, but it would be too big a risk with ioane.

Yeah - I don't think Ioane would play fullback - if one of Beaudy or Richie got injured it would be straight back to Ben Smith at fullback.

But if both of them are playing in four big games - and one of them in each of the "minnow" games - that's a lot of games to get through without an injury - and you might need to carry one of them for several games.

I reckon having a third first five adds more value than another outside back - especially if Beauden is going to play fullback.

yeah, decent points - although our only outside back who has really performed so far is beauden... if it were now i'd kinda feel like they both need to play against the minnows too, just to bed the system in - but we'll see how that looks post-bledisloe i guess.
in general i do think the 'too many games in a row' thing is a bit overstated. in super rugby it wouldn't be unusual to play 6 or so in a row, and sure in the WC they're tough games at the pointy end - but that applies to the opposition players too, and we typically have more depth than most.