Blues vs. Chiefs
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@African-Monkey He's played well the last few weeks. Certainly better than Riccitelli (poor this season) and Harris.
He's behind Taylor, Coltman, and Coles though.
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I know it was a very small sample size (like 5 passes) but Nock's pass looked a hell of a lot better than Pulu's. Pulu does a lot of good stuff but his passing meant the Blues ball runners were on the back foot a lot when they didnt have to be.
Blues 9 and 10 costing them - what a surprise...
Thought that was SBW's best game this season.
Edit - Also nice of Collins to save his one handling error til the after the siren ending any chance of a win
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Suck a fucking dick, retard.
Chiefs by how many?
You'll remember Blues forward Steven Luatua being sent off - and rightly so - the last time these teams met.
His absence, and some cheap late points, helped Blues sympathisers suggest the match had resembled a contest. It wasn't at any stage.
The Chiefs dismantled the Blues' scrum and lineout in clinical fashion and I'm not sure I've enjoyed a display a forward domination more this season.
The final score of 41-26 didn't indicate the extent of the Chiefs' superiority, but they'll get a chance to right that at Eden Park on Friday. The Blues' set pieces are still shaky and a 20 or 30-point win to the visitors seems likely.
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@KiwiMurph Him and that other dickhead Richard Knowler. Pack of twats who are barely qualified enough to post on the fern.
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@KiwiMurph said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
@Tim Yeah that Bidwell muppet is legit anti Blues every week in his column - what a knob
Bidwell, is well known for his muppetness, when I see he's the journo, I know not to bother reading.
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Well, neither team deserved to win that.
For all the niggle they dish out the Chiefs are a pack of fucking whingers. Every whistle there is someone bitching at the ref. Steven Moore would fit in well. This is one reason i don't like the co-captain thing. It just doubles the amount of whinging.Collins must do a hell of a lot of organising (maybe he brings the half time oranges and washes the jersies) because he does fuck all else other than run slowly, not break tackles and throw the occasional shitty offload. A single break from Nanai could have won that game for them.
Rieko was the only back that looked like breaking the line for the Blues. SBW a couple of good touches but still well off proving he is worthy of an AB spot.
As someone said above, Pulu isn't the 9 the Blues need. His constant pausing at the base just fucks their momentum. Not giving the pass to Francis for a droppie just prior to the final missed penalty was costly. He had just got a new advantage, why just knock it on?Dmac has to be in the AB squad now i think. I have doubts about his game fitting test rugby but they need to find a way to use him. I don't see why he couldn't be used at 14. He has the fullback skills and pace and isn't much smaller than NMS.
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@Tim said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
@African-Monkey He's played well the last few weeks. Certainly better than Riccitelli (poor this season) and Harris.
He's behind Taylor, Coltman, and Coles though.
I guess you have only watched the Crusaders v Hurricanes game then? Riccitelli is by no means poor this season. Maybe not as exciting as many expected him to be based on only a few games last season. He had a bad game against the Crusaders but apart from that he's been reasonably good and certainly not the worst of the NZ hookers. Considering he's been covering for Coles all season; has not had any rest because of Coles' injury (and Apisai not being good enough for a start), I think he's done a fine job for a 22 year old in his first full season.
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Is there anywhere that gives % lineout success?
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@Stargazer I misphrased it. He is a very promising young player (would love it if the Blues signed him), and is developing well (continues to perform very well for his age), but by All Black standards (for 2017 selection) he's hasn't had a good year.
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@Tim I don't think anyone has been suggesting he should be playing for the ABs this year, or even next year. What people have been saying is that he has all the potential to become a good All Black hooker in the future. Personally, I have suggested that - considering the relative lack of depth at hooker (Coltman is pretty average, Parsons is shit as an AB hooker, Harris is very injury prone) - it would be a good idea to bring him in the AB environment sooner rather than later (as an apprentice) to learn as much as he can, as soon as he can, to prime him for when multiple injuries strike again.
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@Tim said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
@Stargazer I misphrased it. He is a very promising young player (would love it if the Blues signed him), and is developing well (continues to perform very well for his age), but by All Black standards (for 2017 selection) he's hasn't had a good year.
He's in danger of being the next Rhys Marshall, whose career went downhill after he left the Magpies ....
Our hooking stocks aren't great if Coltman is in the frame (I may have mentioned this once or twice before).
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@Stargazer Those lineout stats are surprising to me - in that they suggest that pretty much every team wins nine out of ten lineouts on their own throw.
My perception from watching would have been that even the very best lineouts would only win about 8/10.
I wonder at what point they call the lineout "won"?
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@Stargazer said in Blues vs. Chiefs:
@Tim I don't think anyone has been suggesting he should be playing for the ABs this year, or even next year. What people have been saying is that he has all the potential to become a good All Black hooker in the future. Personally, I have suggested that - considering the relative lack of depth at hooker (Coltman is pretty average, Parsons is shit as an AB hooker, Harris is very injury prone) - it would be a good idea to bring him in the AB environment sooner rather than later (as an apprentice) to learn as much as he can, as soon as he can, to prime him for when multiple injuries strike again.
How do you judge someone's selection worth on being "injury prone"?
Unless they show a repeating tendency to technically do something poorly that causes injuries, it is just bad luck.
Saying "let's not invest in this guy because he gets injured " is silly and I think you'll find the AB selectors think the same. -
@Crucial This wasn't about "selection worth". I didn't mention Harris being injury prone as a reason for not selecting him. It was about the need (in my view) to prep a talent like Riccitelli for AB duties in case Harris (or other AB hookers) is injured. Read the last part of my paragraph!
