Blues v Chiefs
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@KiwiMurph said in Blues v Chiefs:
Blues are going nowhere but it was a fun game.
Not good for the comp though. Same old Blues is not good news.
We are much better in the forwards and on defence in general. May be same old same old, but it’s early to get too pessimistic.
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@Donsteppa said in Blues v Chiefs:
@Hooroo said in Blues v Chiefs:
I’ll take the credit for that one thank you. Every time I flipped back from the cricket the Chiefs would score a try. I might have a word to them to see if I should seek employment
The Black Caps took two wickets when I changed channel in the other direction
Let’s start a “you’re a good luck charm” business. You look after cricket and I’ll take care of the rugby.
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@African-Monkey said in Blues v Chiefs:
@gt12 Sounds like a phrase we use every year.
That’s fair. They need to choose Nock and Plummer and live with it until BB gets back.
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@KiwiMurph said in Blues v Chiefs:
Was it just me or did Blake Gibson offer bugger all?
Sotutu faded too. Robinson stayed busy, same with Dalton.
But halfback was the biggest problem tonight.
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@KiwiMurph There's no point having him there if he doesn't start. Ioane has to come into the gameday squad next week whether it's starting or off the bench just to bring some balance to our backrow options.
Niuia also has to start next week. Eklund was showing form from his days with the Auckland Mitre 10 Cup side.
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Duffie is fine at #15
Blues halfbacks are fucking terrible Ruru is a headless chicken Perofeta is poor & can't kick to save his life
Plummer & Black are backups at bestBlues are awful - poorly coached, high error rate, mental erros Giving up 32 pts in the 2nd half is disfracful
BB won;t make a difference if he has a bum at scrum half
Good thing Landers have a Mitre 10 squad with A Smith & Iaone or else Blues would AGAIN be worst NZ team in SR -
@Kirwan said in Blues v Chiefs:
@Hooroo said in Blues v Chiefs:
Who was the dickhead who said we are getting an out of form fossil back to the Chiefs???
His field kicking was comical at times. Not sure he’s going to last long either, so be careful....
It was me if you didn’t catch the sarcasm.
From the little I saw of the two halves, it just appeared more controlled in the second half. I could be wrong though as I flukely only really saw tries and build up to tries
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@macandcheese From all comments Nock and Plummer are fine they just need to select them.
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Far out, that was as frustrating a game to go to as I can remember. We did enough in the first half to win by 20, but couldn't kick goals, keep pressure on or get the rub fo the green. Chiefs knew our weakness (mauls) and just exploited it over and over again.
Blues I thought looked a lot better. Some of the short passing is really tasty, just hanging a ball up in space for someone to run to. Should get better and better as the season goes on.
Scrum was a weapon we just weren't smart enough to capitalise on.Ref was poor, missed a lot live, and seemed to miss a lot on replay too. We're not good enough to win tight games if we don't get a fair shake; same as last year.
Ruru was frustrating as all hell. Coughed up ball, made some poor choices on defence I thought, and was generally not great. Nock looked a lot better when he came on.
Lineout fell apart. Lost 3 in a row on our own throw in the first half - it's just letting people off the hook. Don't know why it was so bad.
Well played Chiefs, they won't win many if they can't fix the scrum, but well played to get over the top. Now yuo'll all have to excuse me as i go and drink a few beers and grizzle on the internets.
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Good old Blues killing another coaches career.
Doesn’t matter who the coach is, until they solve the 9/10 issue they will play their guts out and end up on the wrong end of the score.
I actually thought that they played pretty good with good shape and discipline but they freaked out once the comeback started -
@Crucial said in Blues v Chiefs:
Good old Blues killing another coaches career.
Doesn’t matter who the coach is, until they solve the 9/10 issue they will play their guts out and end up on the wrong end of the score.
I actually thought that they played pretty good with good shape and discipline but they freaked out once the comeback startedLast two years have been light years ahead of where Tana dragged us down to. Nice try though.
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@Crucial said in Blues v Chiefs:
I actually thought that they played pretty good with good shape and discipline but they freaked out once the comeback started
Ya say that, but they got the score to go up 26-19 after being 19-all. They ddint' go into their shells, played some decent footy.
Forwards crashing it up and a decent scrum is something yo ucan build a team around. Backs went OK too, we just threw up a shit lineout and slack maul defence again. That and some brain farts and it's all over rover
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@Kirwan said in Blues v Chiefs:
@Crucial said in Blues v Chiefs:
Good old Blues killing another coaches career.
Doesn’t matter who the coach is, until they solve the 9/10 issue they will play their guts out and end up on the wrong end of the score.
I actually thought that they played pretty good with good shape and discipline but they freaked out once the comeback startedLast two years have been light years ahead of where Tana dragged us down to. Nice try though.
You Blues fans have blamed every coach since Ted and you know it.
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Blues v Chiefs: a game of two halves
When the first game of the season is played on the last day of January, you can't blame anyone for expecting a slow start, with average rugby, lots of errors and little entertainment. So what a surprisingly entertaining game this was!
Because the turning point in the game can so easily be placed at half time, I've written down some thoughts about each half separately.
First half
The first half was clearly the Blues' half. They had a very dominant scrum and made some good steals from the Chiefs' line-out. The Chiefs struggled at setpiece.The Chiefs' defence was good in the first half hour, however, and it took the Blues a while to cross the try-line. The Chiefs' attack didn't get them anywhere - partially because of a poor kicking game, partially because of bad ball handling - so the Blues' defence was hardly tested, at first.
Standing out in that first half was Hoskins Sotutu, with also Tony Lamborn having a good game (proving some doubters wrong).
Samisoni Taukei’aho, while a bit anonymous in the first 30 minutes, improved during the half and started to make an impression, culminating in the Chiefs' first try from a line-out drive.
Both halfbacks struggled, and it made me wonder how Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi ever made the All Blacks. He hardly showed to be able to play at Super Rugby level. The starting tens didn't fare much better, both making sloppy passes and kicking badly. Kaleb Trask making his debut, deserves a bit of patience though; he's just a puppy and has plenty of potential for improvement. Not so sure about Stephen Perofeta though.
Best backs on the field during that first half, for me, were Rieko Ioane and Mark Telea. None of the Chiefs' backs really stood out; if I had to pick one, it would probably be Solomon Alaimalo.
Second half
What an impact all those replacements in the Chiefs' squad made! ALB and Cruden coming on straight after the break, immediately influenced the game. The Chiefs' attack - virtually non-existent in the first 30 minutes and sporadic in the last 10 minutes of the first half - suddenly had some spark and passes started to stick.The Blues' pack also lost most of its dominance and the Chiefs' line-out got much better. Taukei’aho was turning into one of the Chiefs' biggest threats. Weber coming on sped up the Chiefs' game even more and the Chiefs started to break the Blues' defence.
Sotuto was probably still the Blues' best in that second half and definitely deserved that Blues' 8 starting spot, but also Ofa Tu'ungafasi and Karl Tu’inukuafe had some good impact, with the latter scoring a good try.
But the best forward in that second half, was definitely Taukei’aho, closely followed by Lachlan Boshier. Best back for me was Solomon Alaimalo, although also Aaron Cruden with his clever drop goal and game management and ALB deserve a mention.
Overall, I think the Chiefs deserved their win, although I think the Blues were unlucky not to get a losing bonus point out of the game.
My MVP was Samisoni Taukei’aho.
Best forward: Samisoni Taukei’aho, with Hoskins Sotutu a good second
Best back: Solomon Alaimalo
Didn't live up to the hype (yet): Joe Marchant
Injury worries: Nepo Laulala, Angus Ta’avao, Ray Niuia
Annoying: Pita Gus Sowakula diving on players on the ground at least twice (not spotted)I thought the officiating was good. Maybe the officials should have checked Aiden Ross' try for double movement?
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