Ireland v All Blacks - Chicago2
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@nonpartizan to play devil's advocate, the two injury replacements early on probably weren't planned...
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@cgrant said in Ireland v All Blacks - Chicago2:
Back to the game ... Williams and Tosi not only won scrum penalties but using their 140 Kgs+ with energy into the rucks allowed to get quick ball, at last, which changed the whole face of the game. Sititi also hit rucks with force. This physicality was something against which the Irish substitutes had no answer. Gus McCarthy is weighing 107 kg, about 40 kgs less than Tosi. Scrum is a technical matter, I know, but McCarthy really struggled at scrum time and was nowhere to be seen in the rucks. Bealham did not fare better against Williams.
There was a shot across the front rows of the bench scrums facing each other in the last 3-5 minutes or so and it really looked like behemoths versus ginger boys who had just learnt how to grow some facial hair. And they looked terrified!
I noticed Tosi seemed slimmed down but still had some serious bulk, he could clear out rucks just by shrugging his shoulders. Almost looked trim next to Williams, who was really enjoying himself. As was Samisoni (the smallest one).
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On the game, I read the thread here before watching the game about 12 hours later and wow. I could hardly tell they were the same thing. Ardie did carry and he did tackle and he was successful in the lineout. Jordan was pebbles and rhinestones but he also cleaned up some dangerous ball and took some great catches. The energy in our midfield was palpable, I was pleasantly surprised how well LF and QT worked together, I wager they're starting next game.
I am no BB fan but he didn't play that badly. I noticed his feints and dummies were totally useless though, he is no running threat compared to DMac but I don't know if that was helped by 20 minutes with 14 Irish on the field. But one thing that really worried me (and was in a previous game) we seem to have no idea of how to maximize overlaps when the opposition have cards.
Their loosies were better than ours (and we were lucky Doris wasn't a starter) but apart from their 9 (who was the best, grumpy back on the park IMO) their backs were a bit blah. Lowe is a strange one, intelligent boot and stupid stupid hands. I thought our wings looked more dangerous.
We do have a serious problem finding a physical 6.
What really pissed me off though were the headlocks* and chokes by quite a few Irish players. Really obvious on camera. Then again, Roigard was being a right fluffybunny to JGP.
Our tackling was still not great esp against their loosies.
My main problem with the ref was his Mr Bean style of English, I had trouble understanding him. And he got in the way of players far too often, surprised he wasn't accidentally bowled over. The touchies were having a laugh on where the ball went out. Either they're Irish supporters or one of us can't gauge trajectories.- Tadhg's leglock on Taylor was blatant.
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oh and maybe it is not obvious as he has the leglength and speed of an overweight corgi but I thought Newell had a big engine just like Holland (who is really beginning to use his frame well). De Groot and The Mighty Williams were two of our best passers. The scrum looked good to me, looked to me they were often happy to just hold it and try to tire out the Irish fatties, which they did.
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@sparky said in Ireland v All Blacks - Chicago2:
Worst All Blacks team of the last 50 years?
Certainly the least entertaining and likeable that I can remember.
This forum really is a crack up. Worst team in 50 years, before even seeing how they went in the second half. Sums up this thread (and every match thread)
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@nostrildamus said in Ireland v All Blacks - Chicago2:
The touchies were having a laugh on where the ball went out. Either they're Irish supporters or one of us can't gauge trajectories.
Great post. Nothing I disagree with.
But especially this.
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One thing with Tupaea and Lester whenever they touched it – I felt they were always making yards or at least bumping off the first tackler from shit situations and looked more dangerous with a bit of space. (I never really got that feeling of that expectation from Proctor.) Can’t find the run metre stats yet.
Surprised how poor Ireland were in the second half. 0 line breaks, 3-4 lineouts lost in a row and won just 69% of their own ball, scrum issues. Their lineouts are a killer as they launch a lot of their plays off of them.
They were the peak of strategy and execution a few years ago - looks more and more like the short passing, multi-phase strategy has been dated. It doesn’t help that they’re struggling to refresh the team, especially with explosive type athletes which they rarely produce. Will be interesting to see how they trend against Aus and SA.
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@JA said in Ireland v All Blacks - Chicago2:
One thing with Tupaea and Lester whenever they touched it – I felt they were always making yards or at least bumping off the first tackler from shit situations and looked more dangerous with a bit of space. (I never really got that feeling of that expectation from Proctor.) Can’t find the run metre stats yet.
Surprised how poor Ireland were in the second half. 0 line breaks, 3-4 lineouts lost in a row and won just 69% of their own ball, scrum issues. Their lineouts are a killer as they launch a lot of their plays off of them.
They were the peak of strategy and execution a few years ago - looks more and more like the short passing, multi-phase strategy has been dated. It doesn’t help that they’re struggling to refresh the team, especially with explosive type athletes which they rarely produce. Will be interesting to see how they trend against Aus and SA.
This in particular. I was thinking how they did not look like a Joe Schmidt-trained side at all. Physical, rowdy, but not the tight drilled team where everyone knew their place.
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@Richie8-7 to be fair we were looking unlikely until the 59th minute when the herculean flying Dutchman pounced on the Irish 10 Crowley and then Tupaea won the turnover, hopefully sky sport show the world rugby awards at months end as I wanna see Fabian receive his world breakthrough player of the year medal
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@nostrildamus I think that’s a fair summary of the positive stuff - things weren’t as bad as stated here - but there were so many errors and poor play that the score line was what it was for 60mins for a reason.
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Gotta love people coming in after the fact and acting like they knew we'd win, instead of putting their balls on the block and posting live during the game with all the emotion that entails. These threads would be boring as fuck if everyone waited until the game had finished before being brave enough to share their thoughts.
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@game_film said in Ireland v All Blacks - Chicago2:
@nostrildamus I think that’s a fair summary of the positive stuff - things weren’t as bad as stated here - but there were so many errors and poor play that the score line was what it was for 60mins for a reason.
we wind up in life and death fights most games. Reality is even with an early red card in our favour for a change, this was no cakewalk.
All it takes is a sneaky yellow to (say) Clarke and we could really struggle to win that game. Good margin in the end but that was an arm wrestle and we did not play well for a lot of it.
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@Grooter said in Ireland v All Blacks - Chicago2:
@Richie8-7 to be fair we were looking unlikely until the 59th minute when the herculean flying Dutchman pounced on the Irish 10 Crowley and then Tupaea won the turnover, hopefully sky sport show the world rugby awards at months end as I wanna see Fabian receive his world breakthrough player of the year medal
On this particular play - I didn't catch it at the time but Holland absolutely busts his guts chasing the kick - full sprint after it from the instant Jordan kicks it. Real effort play which you don't always notice.
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@nostrildamus said in Ireland v All Blacks - Chicago2:
Then again, Roigard was being a right fluffybunny to JGP.
Yeah, just give him the fucking ball when it's their scrum rather than being a dickhead.
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@sparky said in Ireland v All Blacks - Chicago2:
@Richie8-7 See you in the next match thread, everyone's most welcome to contribute!
During the match I'm usually watching the match.
I didn't know we'd win for the first 60 and found it pretty frustrating. This team is a long way off where we need to be and expect to be as All Blacks fans. But "worst All Black team in 50 years" in the first half of a match we won by 13 (and could easily have won by 20), away from home against a supposedly top tier team seems slightly ridiculous. That's 2 in a row now where we've played well for maybe 20 minutes and ended up winning comfortably away from home against decent teams. Great All Black team? A long way off. But worst ever? I don't think so.
