All Blacks vs England I

chimoaus

There were lots of positives. The scrum was dominant. Fielding bombs was excellent.

nostrildamus

Our best - Scott Barrett, Reece, Taylor - all Cantabrians as it happens.

I'd propose another Crusader-god, I feel dirty!

African Monkey

I was happy with us plugging England deep and forcing them to run back at us once we took the lead, and when they finally got given an opportunity to force a scoring play at the end, they had nothing left in the tank.

Frank

@antipodean said in All Blacks vs England I:

@Frank said in All Blacks vs England I:

Our best - Scott Barrett, Reece, Taylor - all Cantabrians as it happens.

Nah - Jordie had a brilliant game.

True - all 3 Barretts played well.

Jailbreak7

@Frank Add Jordie and Aumua to that. Felt better with ALB too.

Tim

You can tell it's a really poor AB performance when the openside flanker has to go off his line frequently to help clean.

Apart from the scrum, that was a step backwards in every aspect. Little or no effective ball carrying up the middle. No connection between carriers and cleaners. Lots of shit side to side play. Lots of very poor kicking. Defense awful.

Few effective ball carriers in the team, and almost never used them repeatedly up the middle. Like one of those terrible "out-flank them" game plans that got smashed by South Africa in the bad old days.

Very much didn't look like there was any plan to control ball, territory, well anything?

Will have to be a hell of a lot better next week. Looked like a squad who had no idea how to play test rugby.

Finau looked fucking useless out there, but maybe it was just the shit game plan. Our tacklers certainly weren't in the right positions at all, and neither were cleaners.

Way too often we were tackling big English ball-carriers side on, almost like a cover tackle, and giving them plenty of time to get speed up. Really poor.

Of course the reserves looked better, it was an intense first 60 minutes ...

nostrildamus

England played very well, very well drilled. Seemed to focus so much on tackling, could have attacked a little more laterally I thought.

sparky

A Bok-style one point win.

I could get used to those.

Machpants

@MiketheSnow said in All Blacks vs England I:

Well done NZ

I called England winning the series 2-0 a month or so back and they should have been going to Eden Park 1 ahead with their tails up

The door should have been shut with 20 mins to go

NZ didn't panic, played the long game knowing England can't score from deep, and got tighter and more precise as the match wore on

Thoroughly deserved their win

NZ will now win the series 2-0

Comfortably

Yeah that was their chance

I'm a big savea fan,, but that showed he shouldn't be allowed to chime back from months off after swanning around in weak Japan comp. Still did his one try saving turnover, as per every game, but he was poor. Ioane was missing his brother, proctor next game thanks. Ratima to start with Plummer (I dream) DMac still is not a test ten. Get darry in and drop Finau, try Blackadder or Jacobsen.

Victor Meldrew

@Chris said in All Blacks vs England I:

@Tordah said in All Blacks vs England I:

bring back foster

And we would lose by 30

If Smith had kicked one of two sitters we would have lost.

Can understand the rust, but any game plan was non-existent and the breakdown work was really, really poor. Robertson might need some time to get his feet under the table, but that was a poor first time out. Expected a bit more tactics-wise.

On the plus side, it might just calm down some of the over-blown hype around the man.

ACT Crusader

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks vs England I:

Good to get a win to start the year. We're never at our best to start the season off and will be much better for the run. It's tough coming together so soon after the end of the domestic season against a tough physical England side who gave it to us.

Man Razor looked like a nervous wreck up there. Welcome to international rugby.

Well said bro.

Both teams did some pretty good stuff out there but it was a defensive style of game.

Beaudie’s kicking in behind was a good tactic to try and turn the English around. DMac’s kicking was far easier for England to manage.

Great to get a win and congrats to the ABs. Razor and the new coaching staff will be pleased that we fought it out, but will no doubt be looking forward to showing where there is opportunity to improve.

Tim

Robertson might want to ask Cotter for some advice about robust, test-level rugby tactics.

Winger

@antipodean said in All Blacks vs England I:

Tele'a has not had a good night - his stepping hasn't created room for himself or anyone else. His lack of pace has been a problem too.

He is a number of players that will be lucky if they start next week

DMac started off ok but was a bit shit in the 2nd half
ChristIe can get the ball away quickly but why doesn't he do it more often
Reiko showed once again he isn't a centre

The backline needs a lot of adjusting. Clarke would be one option as the current back three is unbalanced.

Personally I would prefer Plummer at 1st even if he is quite limited but hes not even in the team.

chimoaus

A few massive stuff ups by us though. 3 or 4 lineouts lost. Finlay not using it when told and McKenzie running out of time. Those 6 moments really put us back under pressure and we lose momentum.

nostrildamus

Our lineout could have done with a lineout specialist, or maybe they thought Finau would have it covered. Our backline was scratchy.

nostrildamus

@Winger said in All Blacks vs England I:

Personally I would prefer Plummer at 1st even if he is quite limited but hes not even in the team.

Yeh this is the sort of game I think suits Plummer.

Victor Meldrew

@antipodean said in All Blacks vs England I:

That George Furbank is fucking handy.

MoM for me. Some of his defensive stuff was unbelievable.

booboo

@MiketheSnow said in All Blacks vs England I:

Well done NZ

I called England winning the series 2-0 a month or so back and they should have been going to Eden Park 1 ahead with their tails up

The door should have been shut with 20 mins to go

NZ didn't panic, played the long game knowing England can't score from deep, and got tighter and more precise as the match wore on

Thoroughly deserved their win

NZ will now win the series 2-0

Comfortably

I think you're over rating England based on their ability to stay close. They had a period after half time. Other than that I felt ABs were on top.

Delete the 2 mins before the break, and Damo's time out and England were Comfortably behind.

antipodean

LOL Does JK ever say anything bad about players? Thinks DMac had a really good game.

ACT Crusader

@Tim said in All Blacks vs England I:

Robertson might want to ask Cotter for some advice about robust, test-level rugby tactics.

Nah we’ve Wayne ‘Magic’ Smith.

The Silver Fern

All Blacks vs England I