Drew Wild playing at 10. Brett Cameron late withdrawal.

@UpTheHarbs said in North Harbour v Southland:

FINALLY!!!

Harbour really dug in for that last 10 minutes and played some solid footy. They got a bit of luck on that sequence with 90 seconds remaining and Southland knocked on. Good win.

@Mr-Fish said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe I:

@Darren said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe I:

You can't win a game with 39 missed tackles, no matter how crap the ref is.
Wonder what the most missed tackles when a team still wins us, in an international.

South Africa comfortably won against NZ a couple of weeks ago with 33 missed tackles and a 72% completion rate.

When we missed 46 tackles @ 71% and there wasn’t a big difference in overall possession, that certainly contributes to a big win.

Also from a couple of sites, they have revised the missed tackles of Oz to 40!

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@booboo there are a lot of Sharks souties. One foot in the UK other one in SA. Dick in seawater.

@Smuts said in Springboks vs Pumas I:

@stodders to be honest, I’m not sure who the coaches see as 1-5.

I’m in the minority (at least in my SA rugby chats), but I’d have Faf, daylight, Williams, Reinach and then a long way back van den Berg.

Faf is far from a perfect scrummie. But he’s the best ruck rat on earth for my money. A defensive menace who gets better as pressure increases and crucially makes everyone around him better too.

It’s probably too soon to tell if Williams has that killer instinct but I reckon we know Reinach doesn’t. Which is fine, so long as the coaches keep Reinach bracketed with a mongrel to deal with clusterfucks like Ellis Park, Eden Park or the RWC semi…

I hear you on Faf, but I’m not sure the coaches think he’s the 9 Tonyball needs.

I reckon he still has a chance of making the WC squad, if only to have on the bench with Pollard as the “reverse-choke squad”, tasked with coming on to wrestle back control of the game when Tonyball fails against a team that can catch and tackle near 90%, or the Boks run up against their 2027 Bryce Lawrence

@taniwharugby said in Northland v Canterbury:

tackler stats

Nice, thats what keeps you in the game.
Nearly knocked off the team top of the table.
Have to think the forwards will be stoked by those numbers.
More of that this weekend.

@jimmyb said in Otago v North Harbour:

Only just watched the game, Millar has had a good few games in a row. Pleasing to see

He's really benefited from not having to be the primary playmaker.

@nostrildamus he was into everything. Full game. One try and did he core jobs well.

Very impressed by Ah Kuoi as a lineout forward. His timing is excellent.

Waikato were shit, Bay fed off errors. The Waikato halfback had an absolute mare.

Physical game though, some huge hits

@Bovidae said in Taranaki v Wellington:

Get Brad Cooper in the ABs as the attack coach.

And Jarrod Hoeata around the forwards!

@Grooter I love watching an 8 hit it up like he does, this is something we lack in the ABs, so often our guys slow as they come into contact or step into it looking for the 50-50 off load or quick recycle which rarely happens with today's defences.and our cleaning.

Simpson had the blinkers on as well, missed his outsides on a few occasions and opted to kick.

Sotutu's Instagram shows he has had surgery on his left shoulder.

@Kirwan said in Counties v Auckland:

@Chris said in Counties v Auckland:

Reiko had a shocker he dropped a heap of passes and really made no impact.
Clarke on the other hand looked a real handfull for the defense.

To be fair, he was getting passes bouncing at his feet and hitting his shoulder.

He didn't play well, but there was chaos around him.

More than enough talent in this team to be performing better than this, have to look at the coaches. All of them.

That’s fair but looks like Reiko’s confidence is gone.

@NTA said in All Blacks vs Springboks II:

@pakman said in All Blacks vs Springboks II:

On the box kicks, in particular post AB kick offs from around 60 to 70ish, Boks regathered four in a row. Noticeable that e.g. Hooker rushed almost beyond where the kick was likely to land and owned the space. I suspect the wind was playing ball back towards them as it came down. A skill which can be learned.

Jump a bit early and get into the space before the opposition - turn sideways or present your back to the opposition to deny them a fair crack, and reduce the chances of you knocking it on.

Looks like a fair contest; is anything but.

Saffers had a tactic a few years ago of going into that space early and flooding the zone with multiple people. Was very effective as most refs didn't seem to care - knocking people away from the all

Judd took a heavy knock in a recent match. Thought Sinton lacked confidence prior to this match, but showed his potential v Manawatu. Lasaqa was hobbling a bit. Amazing acceleration for sure

@Landers92 Pretty bang on with what you said mate. Otago seem to reaping the benefits of investing in youth over last few years. I a Naki man, but could be quite happy to see Otago go all the way in NPC.
I quietly suggest JJ has had this young fellas (especially from the region, but from around country too) and I suspect you will see even more pay for that policy in next few years.
Also how good is Pledger, reminds me of a young Aaron Smith, has his feet is such a sweet position as he gets to rucks etc and just sweeps ball off ground and lets it go, can pass both ways well too.

@taniwharugby said in North Harbour v Northland:

I'd say 9 times out of 10 we dont win that.

That's the difference this year, a bit more mental strength.
Saw this game as a mental battle, NH starting to get super desperate to try and get something out of the wreckage, and Taniwha starting to show a bit of [fragile type] form.
If they execute a little better, they'd start to get difficult to beat.
Always a good feeling when you get the W, and you know you can play better.
Still two games, might nail it yet.

Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory, two weeks running.

Willie is usually a pretty reliable kicker. First one from wide out hitting the post was unlucky. Should've made the second.

Looked like someone slipped over in front of the posts to give up the turnover when we were possibly setting for a drop kick.

Big win for Wellington . Happy Days. 😎

@kidcalder hitting Fomai at the line was very Aaron Smith