Blues win percentage against NZ teams
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@nzzp said in Blues win percentage against NZ teams:
to be fair, an ounce of luck and less injuries early on - or some decent coaching- and we might not go into the Lam Death Spiral that we have been in for ever.
quoting myself, but fark it
I remember the start of this shit. We were leading the Canes at home, and just dropped our bundle, kicked it back to them instead of clearing, and just stopped tackling. That was the start of losing a whole shed load on the bounce with Lam, which led to him getting the boot, and the start of our Celebrity Coach Era.
FML.
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@nzzp confidence plays a huge part, and if you get down early on it is tough to get out of, especially if you are trying different systems you start questioning them, falling back to old habits and it just keeps getting worSe.
I always wonder how teams like Scotland, Argentina, Samoa etc go about preparing for a game against the ABs...you surely go into every game wanting to win, but knowing this is highly unlikely, how do you approach it?
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@taniwharugby said in Blues win percentage against NZ teams:
I always wonder how teams like Scotland, Argentina, Samoa etc go about preparing for a game against the ABs...you surely go into every game wanting to win, but knowing this is highly unlikely, how do you approach it?
the way the Irish did in Chicago - stay aggressive, just stay upbeat and put a shedload of pressure on, hope the opposition is slightly off their game.
but yeah, it's tough. Hence my comment earlier - a bit of luck early in the season, and fewer injuries in key positions certainly helps out. Also, picking the worlds' best wing on the wing could be a good idea
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@nzzp and the opposition playing people out of position...but yeah, tapping into what Schmidt did differently or how he got them to believe (especially after that overtime escape the ABs had made when Ireland shoulda won) they could achieve something so many before hadn't.
I also think our RWC failures were in part due to our top 2 inches, think of all the greats of our game that had failed to win a RWC, and then you have these other teams preparing to win with that legacy of failure weighing on them.
That Adidas slogan soon after they picked up the AB sponsorship: The Legacy you face is more intimidating than any opposition
And that works both ways!
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@duluth What seemed strange to me is not that Tana was forced to use Ioane in the midfield, but that he was played at 12 while Leger was played at 13 - when switching them seemed more logical.
But, if SBW and Moala are injured and Leger has dropped from sight - who else is an option at 12 now?
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@chris-b said in Blues win percentage against NZ teams:
But, if SBW and Moala are injured and Leger has dropped from sight - who else is an option at 12 now?
Tumua Manu, who incidentally has been playing 12 in Auckland club rugby after dropping from sight. In his few opportunities this year (on the wing) he didn't put a foot wrong.
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@kiwimurph Scored two tries this weekend at 12.
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Also I wonder is the NZ U20 second five Tanielu Tele'a injured as I haven't seen him in the Auckland club teams? If he was fit I would have been tempted to give him a crack. He's signed for next year's squad. He's a 12. Could have been useful experience.
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@tim did Tua get on? I didn't watch the game.
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@taniwharugby Few minutes at the end.
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@duluth said in Blues win percentage against NZ teams:
@duluth said in Blues win percentage against NZ teams:
20 matches for Umaga’s Blues - 1 win
5%
One last bump of this thread
Umaga finishes on 5%
THIS IS OUR YEAR
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@Kirwan said in Blues win percentage against NZ teams:
Worth pointing out with Leon currently running at 33% in this metric, compared to Kirwan's 29% and Lam's 37%, kind of puts Tana's 5% in perspective.
Not only that, but a lot of the games we lost were super tight - Crusaders at home was either some good goal kicking, or a refs calls away; Chiefs away just played really really well and burgled it. Canes at home we've done to death...
I guess what I"m saying is that we're solidly lower table, but we're very very close to being towards the upper end. It's been a year we've definitely progressed.
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@Bones Yes most of them would have been. We weren't that bad in 2016-2017, last year however was just a complete disaster. This year's side would barely be on par with the sides of Umaga's first 2 years.
