Scotland v All Blacks
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@ploughboy said in Scotland v All Blacks:
most pleasing part of game for me was the performance as a group of the locks. ranked as our 4,5 and 6th locks and none of them looked out of place
I think we always knew we had good depth at lock even after losing Sam W and BBBR.
That, prop and hooker really. But I didn’t expect all that depth to be tested.
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@Chris-B said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@ACT-Crusader said in Scotland v All Blacks:
The most costly of dropped kicks was Lakai’s in my view. We were on the back foot in our own half.
Yeah - and that's the thing.
I don't really recall us dropping a high ball all season that was uncontested - i.e. like a goober drop in cricket. We probably have, but they're not common.
But, a well-directed box kick that's contestable is going to get dropped more often than it's caught, because you've got someone else's arms shoulders and impact in your space. The Jaapies quite often just send a guy up with one arm to make sure they disrupt the catch.
I don't think the Scots caught any of the ones we missed today.
It's a chaos maker - that's why it's used extensively by most teams. If we seem like we're more vulnerable to it, I'm inclined to think it's as much because other teams' box-kicking is more accurate than ours.
Interestingly, I think the Scots went away from ball in hand once they drew level and resorted to the box kick. Which was quite helpful, because it gave us possession, which we'd been starved of for 20 odd minutes.
Lakai's miss gave the Scots the momentum. Exiting after restarts is the side's Achilles' heel and has been a major problem since Foster. Pop kicks, failure to secure the restarts, poor box kicks, BB and AS chippies, they'll find a way to put pressure on themselves......super frustrating. Sort that out and there will be a major shift in game momentum shifts.
ABs are poorer than other teams at taking the high ball or recovering the box kicks because the players seem to leave it to one or two players. I watched ABs jog slowly back or just stare at the action during the game while they leave DMac/Jordan, etc. to recover the ball. Nobody is getting into recovery positions. Watch the Boks in contrast, they always seem to have a number of players covering all bases. Again, frustrating and squarely on the coaching I think (I gave Foster shit for this but it hasn't improved at all).
This sounds a bit negative, but previously, during for example the Henry era, they seemed to deal with the obvious problems (high ball, lineout woes, etc). These problem areas have been going on for years.
Some really good things happening, too. This doen't seem to be the platform for that, though.
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@Old-Samurai-Jack It was very frustrating, because we'd been pretty good in the first half and if you'd told me at half time (17-0 up) that one team was going to score the next 17 points, I'd have bet a fair bit of cash that we were going to be 34-0 up.
But, we just gifted them possession, territory and numerical advantage through bone headed plays - cards, penalties, unforced errors, soft turnovers whenever we got our hands on the ball, and poor clearances. For a good 20 minutes, every time we had a chance to relieve pressure we immediately fucked it up.
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@1kiwi said in Scotland v All Blacks:
I can't for the life of me understand why the coaches/selectors are persisting with Beauden.
If he is just the stop gap measure until Richie Mounga returns next year why are they not just giving a young first five a chance? They've really got nothing to lose by trying someone else at 10. Once Richie is back are they really going to have him, BB & McKenzie in the same squad? What sort of message does that give to a player like Love?Even if the ultimate plan is to slot RM right back in, surely DMac is the better guy to be filling the jersey in the interim - not only is he better than BB, but he is also more similar to RM such that when RM comes back it can be just plug and play without much disruption.
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@Chris-B said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@ACT-Crusader said in Scotland v All Blacks:
The most costly of dropped kicks was Lakai’s in my view. We were on the back foot in our own half.
Yeah - and that's the thing.
I don't really recall us dropping a high ball all season that was uncontested - i.e. like a goober drop in cricket. We probably have, but they're not common.
But, a well-directed box kick that's contestable is going to get dropped more often than it's caught, because you've got someone else's arms shoulders and impact in your space. The Jaapies quite often just send a guy up with one arm to make sure they disrupt the catch.
I don't think the Scots caught any of the ones we missed today.
It's a chaos maker - that's why it's used extensively by most teams. If we seem like we're more vulnerable to it, I'm inclined to think it's as much because other teams' box-kicking is more accurate than ours.
Interestingly, I think the Scots went away from ball in hand once they drew level and resorted to the box kick. Which was quite helpful, because it gave us possession, which we'd been starved of for 20 odd minutes.
Given how much we naturally like to play off counter-attacking / broken play, it's really baffling that we have not worked harder to make this an area of strength rather than a massive weakness.
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@Chris-B said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@African-Monkey said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@1kiwi said in Scotland v All Blacks:
I can't for the life of me understand why the coaches/selectors are persisting with Beauden.
If he is just the stop gap measure until Richie Mounga returns next year why are they not just giving a young first five a chance? They've really got nothing to lose by trying someone else at 10. Once Richie is back are they really going to have him, BB & McKenzie in the same squad? What sort of message does that give to a player like Love?It was reported by someone that Love and Scott Hansen fell out? Don't know how true that was.
Mo'unga is obviously gonna be the 10 when he's available. We can argue all we like about it, but it's happening, so no point wasting breath on it. The more interesting part for me is, who will be on the bench out of BB and DMac?
On the falling-out, probably 98.5 percent chance it's bullshit.
Rueben's not getting the 10 jersey, because he's a rookie 10 at Super level and even DMac hasn't been able to dislodge BB.
He's not getting the 15 jersey, because Will Jordan has that - but, that's Reuben's actual position in this team.
He's not getting the 23 jersey - and even less after this morning - because that's DMac's.
He's got to bide his time and wait for an injury, or maybe Wales.
I'm not disagreeing with anything you have said there, but what I will disagree with is him starting 1 test and having 3 small cameos on the wing in 2 years. I feel like he could have been given just a wee but more action than what he has currently seen so far.
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@1kiwi said in Scotland v All Blacks:
I can't for the life of me understand why the coaches/selectors are persisting with Beauden.
Often when DMac comes on the field the ABs are behind or the score is close. Sooner or later they are going to be too far behind with BB steering the ship for the subs to have a positive impact and change the result.
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@African-Monkey It's a tough business - international rugby.
We played what the coaches perceive is our best available team vs Scotland and came close to getting turned over.
Coaches seem to have gone quite old school in terms of playing the best team most weeks.
Will definitely be the best team vs England, but after what happened last year vs Italy, I think we'll see quite a lot of change vs Wales. There's still probably going to be some guys who don't get to play on this tour.
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@Chris-B said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@African-Monkey It's a tough business - international rugby.
We played what the coaches perceive is our best available team vs Scotland and came close to getting turned over.
Coaches seem to have gone quite old school in terms of playing the best team most weeks.
Will definitely be the best team vs England, but after what happened last year vs Italy, I think we'll see quite a lot of change vs Wales. There's still probably going to be some guys who don't get to play on this tour.
That’s bad news for Wales. They would have loved a backline of Havili/ALB and Reece
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@junior You'd imagine they're working hard on it.
Some of it might be rugby philosophy. Looks to me that we're mainly trying to catch the high ball and minimize the lottery element.
The Jappies seem less worried about that and more inclined to be happy if the ball is slapped back or even knocked on.They seem to get more guys into the zone to recover the knock down - and a scrum might suit them regardless of who feeds it.
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@MN5 said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@Chris-B said in Scotland v All Blacks:
That’s bad news for Wales. They would have loved a backline of Havili/ALB and Reece
Dave's not on this tour and it looks to me that ALB has been given the role Dave had last year - 10 minutes here and there and skating on thin ice.
2026 will be a new year, but ALB will need a big season and maybe a bit of luck with injuries if he's not to go the way Davey did this year.
I bought a Terry McLean book last week.
It was called "ALB lacks magic."
At least I thought it was - turns out I'd misread the title it was about something completely different.
A miserable joke at ALBs expense!
ALL BLACK MAGIC. The Triumphant Tour of the 1967 All Blacks by Terry MCLEAN on Sainsburys Books
A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1968. 8vo, 183pp. Black & white illustrations. A very good hardback copy in like dust jacket. Item #116620
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@Chris-B said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@MN5 said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@Chris-B said in Scotland v All Blacks:
That’s bad news for Wales. They would have loved a backline of Havili/ALB and Reece
Dave's not on this tour and it looks to me that ALB has been given the role Dave had last year - 10 minutes here and there and skating on thin ice.
2026 will be a new year, but ALB will need a big season and maybe a bit of luck with injuries if he's not to go the way Davey did this year.
I bought a Terry McLean book last week.
It was called "ALB lacks magic."
At least I thought it was - turns out I'd misread the title it was about something completely different.
A miserable joke at ALBs expense!
ALL BLACK MAGIC. The Triumphant Tour of the 1967 All Blacks by Terry MCLEAN on Sainsburys Books
A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1968. 8vo, 183pp. Black & white illustrations. A very good hardback copy in like dust jacket. Item #116620
I assumed he'd get called up with Jordie Barrett injured ?
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@Chris-B said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@MN5 No real need, I think.
They've still got:
Tupaea, ALB
Leicester, Proctor, Rieko.Two of those won't play vs England.
Yeah true, loads of midfield depth. Could easily go ALB and either Proctor/Ioane for Wales.
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Trouble is none of our 13s have nailed it. LF is the best attacking threat but still has major defensive weaknesses and with QT it's basically still the Hungus Brothers. Looks good against weaker and more inexperienced midfields but I think we may need one of them starting and one off the bench, we def. probably need one of them starting as the others lack impact. But we also need someone defensively sound with vision.
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@nostrildamus Tuapea has gone well at 13 - needs more chances there
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@KiwiMurph problem is, that 12-13 axis is huge defensively and both LF and QT still need alot of work there, which is ironic given Ioanes strength is his defence and he seems well in the outer.
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Overall we are tracking well. We have strength through the entire forward pack. When's the last time we could say that.
Last year DMac played well at 10. Why not use him. It's a mystery.
We are so much stronger now compared to the previous World Cup cycle and we lost that by a whisker. Glass half full.
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@ACT-Crusader said in Scotland v All Blacks:
The story I heard was that last year Love and Papali’i were rooming together and after Dalton head butt Razor, Love was seen in the corner of the room taking video footage. Fast forward to the French series this year and after Love questioned a training move, he remembered the words of his 2024 roomie, “just hit them between the eyes”, Love lined up Hansen with a head butt.
well I heard that Love wound up kidnapping Hansen in a case of mistaken identity, and they hushed it up and blamed it on Dalton. And that's why Dalts isn't in the squad any more.
