Ireland v NZ - Chicago Showdown & Dublin Duel
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What a time and place to do it. In Chicago the same week the Cubs break a 108 year hoodoo. Not bad at all Ireland, not bad at all*
*Of course this means they'll probably lose 77-0 in the test at Dublin.
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Well done Ireland. Showed some bottle to keep pressuring us in the last 10 and that first half was mean as. We couldn't get into the game and started piss poor. A couple of moments where we had the chance to sneak into the lead but no dice.
Injuries all over the show which is concerning. Agree that it sucks we lost to them in the USA rather than at home, but NZ rugby needs money so these kinds of fixtures aren't going away. I guess it'll come back to the squad selection and whether we could have made subs earlier on.
Stoked for Barrett, he looked good and the lineout came right when he was on. Smith wasn't flash and some of our basic skills were looking ragged throughout. Haven't seen as many shitty passes for ages. A type of pressure a lot of those players wouldn't have felt in the AB jersey!
Congrats Ireland, some stellar efforts and well bloody earned. See you in two weeks!
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Sorry Aussies, I know you beat Wales, but I found this one of the better reactions to the Irish win:
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Just saw result. Ah fark it.
Hope those dickheads who organise these bullshit games for a bit of cash are happy. 100 odd years down the gurgler to "promote the game". Fuck that shit. You want to play a half-arse match, play a half-arse team. Ireland are not a half-arse team.
Clearly Ireland was the better team, but if they're going to beat that record then I'd prefer it was a proper test in Dublin or in NZ. Maybe they will in a few weeks....
ARRGGGGGHH. FARK IT.
@Rancid-Schnitzel said in Ireland v NZ - Chicago Showdown:
Just saw result. Ah fark it.
Hope those dickheads who organise these bullshit games for a bit of cash are happy. 100 odd years down the gurgler to "promote the game". Fuck that shit. You want to play a half-arse match, play a half-arse team. Ireland are not a half-arse team.
Clearly Ireland was the better team, but if they're going to beat that record then I'd prefer it was a proper test in Dublin or in NZ. Maybe they will in a few weeks....
ARRGGGGGHH. FARK IT.
Yes, and preferably with a full strength AB team. But that won't be in Dublin in 2 weeks.
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Congrats to Ireland and to Pot Hale for patiently biding his time.
I'm surprised at how little the loss hurts TBH. The ABs were victims of their own demise but Ireland played well and I don't really mind getting beaten by a team that plays better on the day.
I think there are lots of lessons in there for the ABs.
I don't think you can have a player as green as Moala there without an experienced winger outside him. Naholo is not the guy to be keeping him organised. And Fekitoa isn't an organiser like Crotty either. Was Ben Smith playing at centre at the end there, because the midfield looked better than it had since Crotty got crocked?
There needs to be a kicking option at the back (as when BB moved there) because it meant that there was no downside to Ireland putting the ball into the corners.
Without Dagg to hoof the ball back downfield with interest and with us not being able to defend a lineout, or even win one we really were asking for it.
Too many green players starting and players out of position meant our defence was hesitant and disorganised
Our line speed was noticeably slower than Ireland's.
Too many soft penalties against a team whose kicker brought his "A" game.
Anyway, could do this all day, but surprisingly the world didn't end when we lost, the sun is shining and I might head to the beach.
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Agree with above comments, I dont honestly think that shows the magic blue print to beat the ABs (Argies in Test 1 showed the best way, if you can play 80)...as well as the Irish played, we made many uncharacteristic errors, and were our own worst enemies with penalties, dropped balls, poor restarts and poor contesting in the air (missed Dagg here) and then our mythical depth being shown up when we had 3 locks outs.
Is curious Dom Bird played the M10 Final, but wasnt deemed fit for the AB tour?
Cant take it away from the Irish though, when we got within 4 points, normally I'd of said we'd roll over them, but but our boys lacked the cohesion to string much together.
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Im going to say Ireland will push us very hard in this- I would not be shocked to see an upset
@kidcalder said in Ireland v NZ - Chicago Showdown:
Im going to say Ireland will push us very hard in this- I would not be shocked to see an upset
Hell yeah
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Was at the game , great atmosphere , like a home game for Irish. Kind of felt Hansen has to wear this one, a few of gambles failed completely. Really missed having the two best locks in the world but Tuoipolutu and Kaino came up short, early lineiut calls came up short, Naholo and Savea combination came up short. Midfield was meh, we looked so much better with TJ. Moody has shown several serious lapses in discipline and this one undoubtedly cost us. Seriously thought it could have been red. He should have been yanked earlier but not having Crockett made that very hard. Hats of to Irish I thought they held the hall in contact and tackled like demons.
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Never thought I'd say this, but Crotty was a big loss. We need a cool, steady man to hold the backline together. Moala and Fekitoa and Savea and Nahalo are all way too inconsistent, and together were green disaster. Missed Dagg bigtime under the high ball, as well as Whitelock and Retallick in the lineouts and in defence.
Smith was rubbish today, TJ Perenara very good. Barrett the S should have been brought on much sooner, he had a good debut. Barrett the B, bloody hell his goalkicking has gone to custard which is very concerning. Moody the penalty magnet can fuck right off. He was the catalyst for so much of the first half nonsense.
Please all deities, may we never have to watch a first half like that ever again.
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Hansen won't look back on several of his selections with any fondness.
Arrogance is an over used word. But given as fans we'd all bought into the "don't worry, we always smash it in the second half" mantra , I wonder if some of the players have subconsciously too. That's not the first time the All Blacks have phoned in a first half performance this year. Some might have got too caught up in the Chicago hype... which is fine as long as you also take care of the basics...
Fringe defence for much of the first half was dire. And with names like Kieran Read (c), Same Cane, Liam Squire, Aaron Smith, and with Jerome Kaino nearby, you wonder what's going on. Yep, Retallick and Whitelock were a big loss, but it's not like the rest of the team didn't know they were missing and couldn't react to some of the holes. Or that Kaino couldn't plug at least one of said holes on D.
I was impressed with Dominic Bird for the Chiefs this year and was surprised that he wasn't in the mix for this tour, though the comments about injury must be the reason? ALB must be wondering how Moala got a game past him too...
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Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and with it that backline was only ever gonna be good in a game we were dominating.
With our premier locks out, it was obvious the Irish would target our line out, they used their boot well, knowing they had a good shot of getting it back if we had a line out or out jumping us without Dagg, not often opposition teams deliberately kick it to us like they did today and get away with it.
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Does TJ take the number 1 halfback spot for the rest of the tour ?
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At the game like DMX. Worst All Black performance I've seen for the ABs I've seen in person.
So baffled how little they did with possession and Hansens poor substitutions.
Fantastic for the Irish but wish it was the Welsh if only because they would pass out sooner.
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I'm not sure whether resting players like ALB and Dagg was the reason for them missing out on selection, but if it was, then why didn't the selectors give them a rest for the Italy game? Was it because their runners-up (Moala/Fekitoa and Naholo) aren't the players they want to test against Italy, but the likes of McKenzie and R Ioane?
Looking forward, obviously they need replacements for Moala, and especially Crotty. ALB will be there at 13, but Fekitoa has been far from convincing. They can call up Tamanivalu as extra injury cover, but he's obviously not considered better than Fekitoa. So except for the Italy game, would it be the right option to move Ben Smith back to the midfield? With Dagg to fullback, and then J Savea, Naholo, R Ioane to battle for the spots on the wing (depending also on how Rieko performs against Italy)?
Also, I assume Tuipulotu and Scott Barrett will start against Italy. Both, esp Barrett, need some game time at test level before they take on Ireland and France, because playing Kaino at lock clearly didn't work and we don't know whether Whitelock will be back in time (if at all this year). Can't bear the thought of losing to France ...
JUST KIDDING, lol.
