England v All Blacks
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Just watching the game. Early part of the game exposed all of our weaknesses, especially our inability to deal with high balls. We worked our way into the game, Lakai ran hard, Lord snaffled a lineout, and we scored a couple of nice tries. BB is holding us back. Two missed penalty touch finders, short pop kicks, aimless deep kicks aren't offset by his one orthodox deep kick to touch. He just fails to give us the authority and control we have to have
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Well done England, better team today
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@W32 said in England Vs All Blacks:
You guys make me laugh. #2 in the world and acting like it’s the end of the world. It can be far worse believe me.
I’ve never cared about the world rankings. They lag behind reality and don’t truely reflect results for performance.
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England played the right tactics today - disrupted our ruck ball aggressively and employed rush defence well. You play to the ref on both those counts. We had chances to come back into the game once we’d let it slip, but weren’t up to it. BB was pretty terrible, and I don’t think some of our selections were great for this game. We have some great top-line players, but the likes of Ratima aren’t up to this level, unfortunately. However, better coaching would help cover those weaknesses. We’re very much in Razor’s image atm - when things aren’t going well, we look completely clueless. I feel for Scooter, a great guy and has been a great player, but not a captain’s asshole.
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@Gunner said in England Vs All Blacks:
That was shit, and it started with Robertson’s shit selections and tactics.
Proctor has shown absolutely nothing in his many chances at centre, where Tupaea and LF have done well as a combo in their short time together. Breaking that up and selecting Proctor again was a huge mistake.
We went from playing at depth and finding space last week, to the flat footed shit, passing to someone else who is flat footed.
The last 10 of the first half cost us that game.
Beauden Barrett, not once but twice, fucking TWICE missing touch from penalties which put us deep inside their 22. Changed the whole game. Even if we don’t score, England are pinned in their own end and can’t kick 2x drop kicks. That’s inexcusable, he should have been pulled off straight after the 2nd one.
And why the fuck are we taking taps from penalties 40m out? We were struggling to make metres as it was, brainless stuff.
Garbage.
Proctor underwhelming I admit but I thought he was the best defender amongst our backs. I don’t know what the tackle count was but I would guess he was up there.
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Outside of a World Cup you look for opportunities to emulate the week-on-week pressure of a tournament. This was a rare shot at a Grand Slam, Based on this, we’ve gone out in the Semis (poorly).
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@stodders said in England Vs All Blacks:
@Victor-Meldrew said in England Vs All Blacks:
@stodders said in England Vs All Blacks:
@Victor-Meldrew said in England Vs All Blacks:
@rewa267 said in England Vs All Blacks:
I think it’s difficult for Razor to get rid of the ill discipline within the All Blacks from the Foster era. We see it in the Chiefs & why they can’t win important games & it’s rares it head in the All Blacks
Blaming Foster & The Chiefs for Robertson's inability to instill on-field discipline after 2 years in charge has to be some of the finest satire or sarcasm I've seen on The Fern. Well done sir!
Right now, I'd fucking love 10% of the discipline & resolve Foster's AB's showed in RWC2023.
That was Schmidt. Come on. Foster’s shitshow was before Schmidt arrived.
Yeah, nothing structural in NZ rugby needs to be looked at. All hunky-dory. Just need to find that one bloke who'll sort everything out
NZ have had a number of poor vintages at u20 level in recent years, with this year being the first to showcase some players who could become ABs in the future.
Whereas England, France and SA have had some very good vintages in the same period.
I think this is playing a big part. We have been very poor, by our standards, at age grade level for a while now, and it is being reflected at senior level. We are falling behind in player development. This year looked better, but we still got roundly beaten by SA (we beat them in SA, but the game could have gone either way and we very nearly fucked up at the end). They also looked on par with France etc.
I mentioned the 2022 U20 team a few weeks back and how quite a few players were now starting to come through the senior ranks. While they smacked Aussie and Argentina(?) we never got to see them on the world stage so it's hard to get a good gauge on them.
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@Crazy-Horse horse do you know what make me envious? their 3rd playmaking option Fin Smith missed out on selection this week however that doesn't mean Borthwick will preclude him from future top level tests, on the flip side our equivalent Ruben Love has simply never been in consideration the past 3 weeks now has he.
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@Grooter said in England Vs All Blacks:
@Crazy-Horse horse do you know what make me envious? their 3rd playmaking option Fin Smith missed out on selection this week however that doesn't mean Borthwick won't include in him future top level tests, on the flip side our equivalent Ruben Love has simply never been in consideration the past 3 weeks now has he.
@Grooter said in England Vs All Blacks:
@Crazy-Horse horse do you know what make me envious? their 3rd playmaking option Fin Smith missed out on selection this week however that doesn't mean Borthwick won't include in him future top level tests, on the flip side our equivalent Ruben Love has simply never been in consideration the past 3 weeks now has he.
Start Love at 10 with DMac on the bench as the safety option if it doesn’t work. I mean FGS, Henry saw that he had to blood another 10 to deputise for Carter and gave Cruden and Slade their chance. They weren’t great when they first started, but experience has to be gained somehow.
The SA tour next year has to see players be given their chance to stake their claim to the top 23. If it is first team and dirt trackers, what is the point? May as well just play the same 23 until someone gets injured - oh wait, that is the plan

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New Zealand needs to develop some First Fives with a skill set similar to George Ford. Too many of our 10s melt at Test level because of poor kicking and defensive games and not really coping with the lack of space.
Beauden Barrett hasn't been the answer this year. I don't think bringing back Richie Mo'unga is the answer either.
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After a couple of early mistakes DMac steadied. Multiple penalties on England and DMac puts WJ over with a nice move. But for most of the final quarter we are unable to create a platform in the forwards to get back onto attack. Ball to the backs is slow and too many times we are caught well behind the gain line. What was noticeable to me was the youthfulness of the England team, NZ not so much