The Silver Fern

@Stargazer said in Chiefs v Rebels:

@KiwiMurph said in Chiefs v Rebels:

Late change

DMac in for Ioane on the bench

Not because of an injury. Sad to read on Ioane's instagram that his father passed away (cancer).

The black armbands suggested someone had died.

@Steven-Harris said in Chiefs v Highlanders:

Dawai has been good

His best game for the Highlanders I thought. Not a big sample size so far though. 🙂

@cgrant said in Moana Pasifika v Chiefs:

There is also Finau in contention for a bench spot. I like his physicality.

I'm a fan too, but I was still surprised he made the bench in game 1.

The Chiefs are short on THP

Yes, and the injuries to Ta'avao and Moli haven't helped, which is why there was an SOS to Ryan. Dyer is only 23. The majority of the young props in the Chiefs system that I am familiar with are LHs.

@Crucial Any idea if Alex Harford will feature this year for the Saders?

For the Blues, I noticed that Darry had a knee brace on. One of the Lay brothers had a moon boot on.

Darry torn/ruptured LCL.
James Lay suspected lisfranc injury on the OTHER foot 🤦‍♂️

@Bovidae malimali looked dangerous on the few occasions he was given the ball could be useful

@nzzp said in Foster's Firsts.:

@nostrildamus said in Foster's Firsts.:

@nzzp said in Foster's Firsts.:

@Rancid-Schnitzel said in Foster's Firsts.:

Disagree with the last part. The RWC showed what these guys are actually capable of.

Counterpoint: who in that squad didn't play better than they had in the 4 year cycle?

Shannon and Sam C have played better.

Which Sam Cane performance was better than his Ireland game?

I thought he was meaning the final only. My bad if entire RWC.

Anyone got any juice about potential signings?

@pakman said in SF Crusaders v Chiefs:

@kiwi_expat said in SF Crusaders v Chiefs:

@Canes4life said in SF Crusaders v Chiefs:

Can Robertson just take Foster’s place already.

Yep, Incredible defense. Every Crusaders player knew what to do in every situation. Their line speed in defence, the outside defender coming up quicker to shut wide play down, only three max in the tackle, another defensive line quickly forming behind the ruck, and great communication. Then rinse and repeat. Brilliant coaching, Robertson surely has the best defensive set-up in the Southern Hemisphere.

A big part of this is ruck judgement. If ball not obvious to be won, Chch is excellent at clearing their players out so arguably the ruck has ended. I'm not sure where the offside line is in such instances but they appear to line up parallel with the foremost opposition player. So in practice, perhaps 2m downfield from where the halfback picks up the ball.

By the time the ball gets to the oppo first five Chch defense is over the advantage line.

Really makes it difficult to impossible to get go forward from slow ball.

My gut tells me the offside line needs to be moved further back, but not sure exactly how to achieve that.

Maybe make it 5m back from front of first oppo player at the ruck which was?

5m gaps are very hard to police and would end up with lots of debatable calls. I thought that interpretation they tried of being 'clearly onside' rather than 'clearly offside' worked well. It wouldn't stop good ruck management defence like that you describe but it made a very clear method for the AR to identify those small half steps that make a big difference in these situations.

(I'm not complaint about anything in this game here just discussing the offside line topic)

As far as tackling is concerned, Finau is the most Kainoesque loose forward in NZ.

I have finally skimmed through a viewing of this game. The Chiefs were completely dominated in the tackle so the backs were always on the back foot. Losing both 1st 5s by HT didn't help the Chiefs but I don't think it would have mattered.

Noah Hotham was definitely the most influential player on the field.

Te Hiwi was one of the form midfield backs in the tournament so deserves selection for the NZ U20s IMO.

@ploughboy going from today’s result it looks like you have enough talent to pick from.

If only the game lasted 70 mins. Those conditions were very foreign to NZ teams, and there weren't many Chiefs who didn't drop the ball at some stage. None of the subs really has much positive impact on the game.

Nankivell looked disinterested on the wing.

I am assuming Trask will be out with concussion so a big decision to be made on who plays at fullback. I think McMillan might go with Ioane.

As I understand it Brial is available for NZ U/20 selection that is why he is playing in this tournament for the Crusaders.

Just an add on the Family Michael Brial etc have been living in Queenstown since Joe was 9.So as I understand it the whole family has moved permanently to NZ.Even though Joe went back to Australia for secondary school.

@Crucial

Given that Stevenson is probably part of our best back three (leaving, I assume, which is why he is unsighted), I'd say our best back three should be (11) ENS, (14) Lowe, (15) Stevenson.

However, McMillan will have to select his BOP baby, so the best we can hope for is ENS, Lowe, and Trask.

@Canes4life said in Rebels v Chiefs:

@ACT-Crusader atleast we beat the Tahs. 😂

We’ve been underdogs all season.

Hopefully a few more players like Retallick, Ioane and Weber are back on deck this weekend or next, maybe even Stevenson. McMillan really needs to decide on his best back three from here on, and must realise that Gatland and Trask can't start together.

The Chiefs have played the 3 best Aust teams to date so as long as they win their remaining 3 games should secure 4th position and a home QF. That said, their away record is much better than their home record this season.

Ross rightly got props for his work at scrum time, but one thing which spider cam showed was how much Taukei’aho worked with him to overwhelm the TH. Impressive stuff when that was Tupou!
Must be one of first names down on AB team sheet.

@gt12 said in Chiefs v Waratahs:

How fucking good is Lord?

That line out take in the 23rd minute was sweeet.

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