Blues vs Waratahs
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I'll take that.
Conditions suited Tahs.
Injuries are a concern.
Closing it out was great. Nock was surprisingly great.
@KiwiMurph Nock was decisive with his decision making and passing. Be interesting if he could manage a game starting now? And be prepared to run more. Thought he was picked to early and that over time he will get a lot better. Good covering tackle at one stage - he is quite quick.
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Think that game showed the importance of Gibson's leadership. We really seemed to go off the boil when he went off the field.
Happy to take the win, but was a frustrating watch. We just looked a bit flat and off our game for the last 60 minutes.
Didn't look like one of Akira's more consistant games, but I was cooking while trying to watch it on the laptop.
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Blues are a great watch at the moment. , gees Nonu is still absolute class, you'd have to put him in the ab squad in this form.
@Rembrandt said in Blues vs Waratahs:
Blues are a great watch at the moment. , gees Nonu is still absolute class, you'd have to put him in the ab squad in this form.
Not a chance. He's awesome, but would be brutally exposed trying to go back up a level. Pace is just gone; he's not got the acceleration or top end. Look at his try - he dived early and I reckon he was gassed. Smart, but the physical attributes have faded.
That said, if it's a choice of Ma'a or Sonny, I'll ahve to stop and think. But I don't think either should be in the squad
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Well, hell yeah. We won, and we ground it out. Really stoked with this; this was winning ugly. Bunch of top of head thoughts below
Blake Gibson very influential; when we went off, it all fell apart. At 17-0 after 17, we were on track for a cricket score.
I really don't see the negativity for Otere on here either - he's a decent kicker, has god length on his punts, and has kept the team structure. Not setting the world on fire, but not disasterous at all either.
Ma'a I spoke about above. Great at this level, but he's showing age. Wonderful to have him though
Both Ioane's seemed subdued tonight. Maybe the minutes catching up?
Ruru can't box kick to save his life. it was terrible. Our exits were abysmal all night, and we have to work on it.
Set piece marginally OK. Better than last week.
Forwards generally - take a bow fellas I reckon you stepped up and won that for us, particularly at the end. That three minutes seemed way to long to try and run the clock, but by god you got there. Well bloody done. I wouldn't have been that brave - would have put it down in the corner and taken our chances.
Ref was a mixed bag of good adn 'interesting'. Some of the people picking up balls where counter rucks have happened ... or 'in from the side ignored'. Well, most weeks that shit happens.
We're building nicely. Patches of good play starting to extend, and linking a few wins together. Last week was special against a very good pack, this week was bloody gritty resilient stubbornness. Haven't seen that out on Eden Park for the Blues for as long as I can remember.
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@Rembrandt said in Blues vs Waratahs:
Blues are a great watch at the moment. , gees Nonu is still absolute class, you'd have to put him in the ab squad in this form.
Not a chance. He's awesome, but would be brutally exposed trying to go back up a level. Pace is just gone; he's not got the acceleration or top end. Look at his try - he dived early and I reckon he was gassed. Smart, but the physical attributes have faded.
That said, if it's a choice of Ma'a or Sonny, I'll ahve to stop and think. But I don't think either should be in the squad
@nzzp said in Blues vs Waratahs:
Pace is just gone; he's not got the acceleration or top end. Look at his try - he dived early and I reckon he was gassed. Smart, but the physical attributes have faded.
Yeah he looked really slow for that one.
It will be interesting to see how he goes against more NZ sides. The Crusaders (defending at 13) and Highlanders managed to expose his lack of pace. Against the Stormers and Tahs he was able to keep to his narrow channel
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@Machpants said in Blues vs Waratahs:
His pass is still the best though, just so useful/dangerous
In the warmups he was throwing bullets 20 m left and right. Just amazing skills, loved it
Edit: I'm a massive fan, but wouldn't have him in the AB squad. Reckon he'd get torn apart at the top level.
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Four wins in a row for the Blues
The first time since early 2013. That streak was shared between Lam and Kirwan. Late in 2012 the injury crisis faded and some young players were thrown in and went well (Puitau ruining the Brumbies season), then Kirwan had a brief bounce..
Four wins in a row in the same season? Go back to Lam’s 2011 side that got 7 in a row
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His name is spelt "Ma'a Nonu" but it can be pronounced as "Living Legend".
This is a guy who made his NPC debut in 2002 and his Super Rugby debut in 2003. In his distinguished international career he donned the famous Black Jersey for 104 Tests, contributing to two World Cup wins with tries in the 2011 Semi Final and the 2015 Final.
Tonight he set up Tom Robinson for the first try with a superb pass, he set up Caleb Clarke for the second with another superb pass and had the instincts honed by nearly two decades playing and training at an elite level to be in the right place to take the offloaded from Reiko Ioane to run in and score a try himself.
A great signing for the Blues. Their young players must be learning so much from playing with perhaps the greatest ever 12 to play the game.
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Ma'a Nonu is some player. What a legend.
Faiane another very tidy game at 13 too - gee has his game grown in the last 12 months.
Hopefully Gibson's injury isn't as bad as it seems. Poor guy's body just won't comply.
Goodhue did well coming back from injury - nice and solid.
4 wins in a row. Enjoyable times.
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@Rembrandt said in Blues vs Waratahs:
Blues are a great watch at the moment. , gees Nonu is still absolute class, you'd have to put him in the ab squad in this form.
Not a chance. He's awesome, but would be brutally exposed trying to go back up a level. Pace is just gone; he's not got the acceleration or top end. Look at his try - he dived early and I reckon he was gassed. Smart, but the physical attributes have faded.
That said, if it's a choice of Ma'a or Sonny, I'll ahve to stop and think. But I don't think either should be in the squad
@nzzp said in Blues vs Waratahs:
That said, if it's a choice of Ma'a or Sonny, I'll ahve to stop and think. But I don't think either should be in the squad
Nonu every time. May have lost pace but doubt he'd bugger things up as much as SBW seems to.
Don't think Ma'a will/should make the AB squad, but then again, I'd love to have his experience and nous around the AB squad
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MacDonald confirmed the knee injury that forced flanker Blake Gibson off the field early was a laceration, though he was uncertain of the seriousness of it.
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@nzzp said in Blues vs Waratahs:
That said, if it's a choice of Ma'a or Sonny, I'll ahve to stop and think. But I don't think either should be in the squad
Nonu every time. May have lost pace but doubt he'd bugger things up as much as SBW seems to.
Don't think Ma'a will/should make the AB squad, but then again, I'd love to have his experience and nous around the AB squad
@Victor-Meldrew said in Blues vs Waratahs:
@nzzp said in Blues vs Waratahs:
That said, if it's a choice of Ma'a or Sonny, I'll ahve to stop and think. But I don't think either should be in the squad
Nonu every time. May have lost pace but doubt he'd bugger things up as much as SBW seems to.
Don't think Ma'a will/should make the AB squad, but then again, I'd love to have his experience and nous around the AB squad
Yeah, what you get with a semi fit SBW is that insane offload and physicality. Ma'A set people up yesterday with his passing; last week it was the offload from SBW that created the key score. You know it's coming, but he's such a physical specimen that you just can't stop it.
So, really, it depends on what you want and who you have around them. SBW has been injured off and on for so long, it's hard to get a decent read on his form.
That said, Ma'a OR SBW >>>>>>> Rieko at 12. FML.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Blues vs Waratahs:
@nzzp said in Blues vs Waratahs:
That said, if it's a choice of Ma'a or Sonny, I'll ahve to stop and think. But I don't think either should be in the squad
Nonu every time. May have lost pace but doubt he'd bugger things up as much as SBW seems to.
Don't think Ma'a will/should make the AB squad, but then again, I'd love to have his experience and nous around the AB squad
Yeah, what you get with a semi fit SBW is that insane offload and physicality. Ma'A set people up yesterday with his passing; last week it was the offload from SBW that created the key score. You know it's coming, but he's such a physical specimen that you just can't stop it.
So, really, it depends on what you want and who you have around them. SBW has been injured off and on for so long, it's hard to get a decent read on his form.
That said, Ma'a OR SBW >>>>>>> Rieko at 12. FML.
I think Ma'a offers more in leadership stakes than SBW - he strikes me as having a bigger influence on teams than SBW. Also has more skills overall than the latter. Either will need to do some convincing to get into the AB squad IMHO.
One of the downsides of players like Nonu heading off after 2015 is all that experience vanishing overnight. Would have been great if we'd had him for a year or two to ease in the likes of Goodhue and ALB.
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Ma'a Nonu is some player. What a legend.
Faiane another very tidy game at 13 too - gee has his game grown in the last 12 months.
Hopefully Gibson's injury isn't as bad as it seems. Poor guy's body just won't comply.
Goodhue did well coming back from injury - nice and solid.
4 wins in a row. Enjoyable times.
@KiwiMurph said in Blues vs Waratahs:
Hopefully Gibson's injury isn't as bad as it seems. Poor guy's body just won't comply.
Deep laceration to the knee.
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I think Ma'a offers more in leadership stakes than SBW - he strikes me as having a bigger influence on teams than SBW. Also has more skills overall than the latter. Either will need to do some convincing to get into the AB squad IMHO.
One of the downsides of players like Nonu heading off after 2015 is all that experience vanishing overnight. Would have been great if we'd had him for a year or two to ease in the likes of Goodhue and ALB.
@Victor-Meldrew said in Blues vs Waratahs:
I think Ma'a offers more in leadership stakes than SBW - he strikes me as having a bigger influence on teams than SBW. Also has more skills overall than the latter. Either will need to do some convincing to get into the AB squad IMHO.
One of the downsides of players like Nonu heading off after 2015 is all that experience vanishing overnight. Would have been great if we'd had him for a year or two to ease in the likes of Goodhue and ALB.
Funny. Everything I have read suggests the exact opposite.
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I think Ma'a offers more in leadership stakes than SBW - he strikes me as having a bigger influence on teams than SBW. Also has more skills overall than the latter. Either will need to do some convincing to get into the AB squad IMHO.
One of the downsides of players like Nonu heading off after 2015 is all that experience vanishing overnight. Would have been great if we'd had him for a year or two to ease in the likes of Goodhue and ALB.
@Victor-Meldrew said in Blues vs Waratahs:
One of the downsides of players like Nonu heading off after 2015 is all that experience vanishing overnight. Would have been great if we'd had him for a year or two to ease in the likes of Goodhue and ALB.
You think he would stay around to not get starts? If he stayed he would have continued to start, and ALB would never have been picked in the first place.
There's never really been a time when players "eased" in others. They used to retire in the non-professional era rather than watch themselves be squeezed out. Now they go overseas.
