Blues v Force

[KiwiMurph]

For those who watched Akira in the last 12 minutes or so last week he actually looked fired up and busy. Was a definite shift in intent. Hopefully more of the same this week.

[Crazy Horse]

Ok, so the first steps to getting Akira back to his best is getting him to run with an angry face. Tana, you had better bloody be reading this!

[SammyC]

@Crazy-Horse said in Blues v Force:

Ok, so the first steps to getting Akira back to his best is getting him to run with an angry face. Tana, you had better bloody be reading this!

Or just increase his workrate

Which he has already done apparently

[Duluth]

I agree with the comments from the knitting circle he definitely needs to get his facial expression form back to this level

But we have to accept that he is a gemini

[Duluth]

Just checked what he did in his 27mins vs the Crusaders

He carried the ball at a far higher rate to any other forward in the match. Impressively, despite playing only a portion of the match, he carried for the 2nd most metres of any forward in the match (1m behind Kaino). No missed tackles, although he didn't have to make many.

[SammyC]

@Duluth said in Blues v Force:

Just checked what he did in his 27mins vs the Crusaders

He carried the ball at a far higher rate to any other forward in the match. Impressively, despite playing only a portion of the match, he carried for the 2nd most metres of any forward in the match (1m behind Kaino). No missed tackles, although he didn't have to make many because the Blues had a good roll on when he subbed on.

FFS is ball carries the only stat you guys ever quote on here?

everytime a players workrate is critiscised someone pipes up and quotes that stat.

I'm more interested in his (non-existant) work at the breakdown (where the blues were getting destroyed)

[ACT Crusader]

@Duluth said in Blues v Force:

@Milk

Opportunities? He's barely played since the Luatua suspension.
When he has got on the field he's played well. His one man effort to stop the Bulls rolling maul last week was freakish.. but he only had a few minutes to show anything

As for where he should be right now - I think he has been mismanaged by the NZRFU

He was brilliant in the 2015 NPC
Then he joined the 7's team
He came back to Super Rugby much leaner but still played quite well
He played 7's in the middle of SR
Came back to SR again
Went to the Olympics
Played NPC. It around here that he started looking quite flat. It looked like he tried to gain the lost weight and lost some explosiveness
Then he went on the Maori tour and still was quite flat

Thats a crazy 15 month start to a career. He could have handled it better, but I think the NZRFU expected too much out of a young player without an off season.

I'm not sure why some people are so keen to write him off

The guy is a huge talent and one pleasing thing for me this season is that he seems to have got rid of some of that off the ball stuff that seemed unnecessary.

But in hindsight the 7s probably screwed him a bit. He's a different player to Messam or Adam Thompson, the 7s has IMO affected his power game. Body shape has definitely changed.

[Duluth]

@SammyC said in Blues v Force:

I'm more interested in his (non-existant) work at the breakdown (where the blues were getting destroyed)

When Ioane was on the Blues were mounting their comeback and we had a run of good possession. The rucks were not such an issue at that stage (as for actual ruck turnovers that was only 3-2 to the Crusaders)

[SammyC]

@Wally said in Crusaders v Blues:

I was at the game. I couldn't believe how lazy A Ioane was when he came on.
The Blues forwards were gone
at about 60 minutes.

@antipodean said in Crusaders v Blues:

@Wally said in Crusaders v Blues:

I was at the game. I couldn't believe how lazy A Ioane was when he came on.

He'll never be an All Black.

@Crazy-Horse said in Crusaders v Blues:

@SammyC said in Crusaders v Blues:

@Wally said in Crusaders v Blues:

I was at the game. I couldn't believe how lazy A Ioane was when he came on.
The Blues forwards were gone
at about 60 minutes.

He looked so disinterested, walked around the field with a sorry expression on his face.

What has happened to the dynamic player we saw last year?

Maybe he is trying to play for a Warriors contract. The way he is going he will fit right in.

@Stargazer said in Crusaders v Blues:

I think the last few posts perfectly sum up why Akira Ioane may not have what it takes to be an All Black. Contrast that to Jordan Taufua, who is exactly the opposite. Don't think there are many players who are more motivated and have a higher work rate than him. I know some think he's too small, but I'm not convinced that his height (or lack of it) should be barrier. He has plenty of other things to offer.

A few observations from the Crusaders Blues thread after a quick look (not inlcuding my own of course)

[Tim]

Can't wait for the great All Black career of mediocre journeyman Jordan Taufua to begin.

[Duluth]

Yup lots of silly comments there about facial expressions or saying that the forwards were shot at 60m (he subbed on at 53 and was a large part of the comeback after 60mins)

Carrying more than any Crusader forward and more than any forward not called Kaino is not a bad effort (in just 27mins) But did you see his expression

[SammyC]

@Duluth said in Blues v Force:

Yup lots of silly comments there about facial expressions or saying that the forwards were shot at 60m (he subbed on at 53 and was a large part of the comeback after 60mins)

Carrying more than any Crusader forward and more than any forward not called Kaino is not a bad effort. But did you see his expression :lol:

He carried the ball 4 times in 27 minutes? that's not as impressive as you are making out

[Duluth]

@SammyC

5 carries for 34m

Tafua for instance 4 carries for 3m and he started

He has a silly expression on his face too

[SammyC]

@Duluth said in Blues v Force:

@SammyC

Wrong

I got that from Fox Sports stats? Assume you are using the herald?

[SammyC]

@Duluth said in Blues v Force:

Yup lots of silly comments there about facial expressions or saying that the forwards were shot at 60m (he subbed on at 53 and was a large part of the comeback after 60mins)

Also, what comeback? did the blues score again after Francis missed the penalty around 60minutes?

[Duluth]

@SammyC said in Blues v Force:

Also, what comeback?

Typo

I'm happy to admit when I'm wrong..

[SammyC]

@Duluth said in Blues v Force:

@SammyC

5 carries for 34m

Tafua for instance 4 carries for 3m and he started

He has a silly expression on his face too

Taufua was excellent in that game, shows how stupid it is to judge a players performance on the basis of ball carries alone.

[Duluth]

@SammyC

I'm not doing that

Besides a far better metric of a players performance is facial expression

[KiwiMurph]

Speaking of Ioanes, it annoys me that the media gets lazy - as soon as anyone plays from the bench such as Rieko they are 'dropped' or 'dumped'.

Listening to Tana it's quite clear he's giving Rieko a bit of a spell after playing every minute/game so far and they can't pick everyone to play every week, they only have so many backline spots.

Saying Rieko has been 'dropped' is wrong. Just because he isn't scoring 3 tries a game doesn't mean he hasn't been playing well - he has been really strong at centre and last week made breaks once Faiane came on and he was able to get some ball in space (heavily involved in two final Blues tries).

[Stargazer]

@KiwiMurph Yes, I noticed that, too. All for the clicks, obviously, because 'being dropped' sounds so much more dramatic than 'getting a rest'. That's why I usually prefer to read the media releases with the team naming (if available), rather than articles on the NZH or Stuff website.