Ireland vs All Blacks (2018)
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@steven-harris said in Ireland Vs All Blacks:
Outplayed and out coached by the Irish on the day,no real complaints from me.
Not the end of the world, but I have seen plenty of evidence to suggest signs of staleness within this coaching group.No question it was a points decision to Joe Schmidt after this mornings match and that what’s worrying me
We have the players,but is this coaching group getting the best of out of this group..?I guess it all depends on if you believe Hansen, that we're trying new things and they're taking time to bed in (along with the powder dry theory) or if this is currently all we've got and the best we can hope for is a few players freshening up and some marginal improvements from the likes of Moody and Cane coming back (seemed like Ireland were missing more key players than us?).
Really we could easily have lost four games this year and something that seems to have changed in recent weeks (since the loss to SA) is that we've been kicking the ball a lot more. Understandable in the wet against England, but it hasn't worked for us.
What might prove to be a bit of a mistake is is Hansen's sticking too rigidly to his idea that you don't lose your place through injury. I'm inclined to think George Bridge should have been picked for TRC instead of NMS and maybe we would have discovered that our best back three is Ioane, Bridge and Smith. (Since Squire is apparently broken, I'd put him on a plane home and replace him with Bridge - and play George).
Other one is SBW. They've tried playing him into form when maybe he should have been sent to M10 Cup and Laumape been given a chance. Today's backline configuration seems to lack a really big munter who can punch holes in the line. Which is why I can see why they've been keen to retain SBW, but maybe they should have backed Laumape.
All in all, we seem to have quite a few problems in the backs. We also have some potential solutions, but those solutions are green as grass and I'm pretty convinced Hansen will stick with experience unless his hand is forced through injury.
In the forwards, I'd like to think it's just a matter of fine-tuning, freshening up and bringing back a few key players. We won the lineouts today, bounced back in the scrums and it wasn't the forwards (very often) who wastefully kicked possession away and forced us to defend for most of the first 60 minutes.
@chris-b actually I think both forwards and backs were crap. But much harder to be good in backs if forwards not going forward. Issues with forwards - those first half penalties were primarily them and some just very poor from senior players, we didn’t win contact ( poor ) or tackle ball, two penalties in first half at scrum time when we were dominated.
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@chris-b actually I think both forwards and backs were crap. But much harder to be good in backs if forwards not going forward. Issues with forwards - those first half penalties were primarily them and some just very poor from senior players, we didn’t win contact ( poor ) or tackle ball, two penalties in first half at scrum time when we were dominated.
@kev Yeah - they got dominated for 60 minutes today, but generally I think they're a pretty solid pack. I don't have too many concerns that when we need a big effort from them at the RWC that we will get it.
I think there's a few more fundamental issues in the backs, right now.
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Was a good game of rugby to watch. Loved seeing the ABs under huge pressure two weeks in a row. Just an English foot away from being a complete horror of EOY tour.
Thought Ardie and Scott Barret were the pick of the forwards while the midfield defended strongly. We really need a plan b when plan a (Bbbr) doesn't play well.
Beaudy continues to struggle but I didn't think RM looked much better. Just played a different game that Ireland took in their stride. Heaps of flat and short passes but they never seemed like scoring.
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Reads whinging to the ref is pretty embarrassing.
.....and I don't recall an AB debut half as eagerly anticipated as Akira Ioanes. Ever. His fern legend is the stuff Charlie Ngatai could only dream about.
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Reads whinging to the ref is pretty embarrassing.
.....and I don't recall an AB debut half as eagerly anticipated as Akira Ioanes. Ever. His fern legend is the stuff Charlie Ngatai could only dream about.
@mn5 said in Ireland Vs All Blacks:
Reads whinging to the ref is pretty embarrassing.
.....and I don't recall an AB debut half as eagerly anticipated as Akira Ioanes. Ever. His fern legend is the stuff Charlie Ngatai could only dream about.
Test debut (to be all pedant), it wouldn't be half as anticipated if Hansen had just thrown him a bone in the early season matches or against Japan.
If ref wasn't complaining to the ref we'd likely be complaining too - Barnes actually put both Read and Best in their place ... which was quite funny.
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@mn5 said in Ireland Vs All Blacks:
Reads whinging to the ref is pretty embarrassing.
.....and I don't recall an AB debut half as eagerly anticipated as Akira Ioanes. Ever. His fern legend is the stuff Charlie Ngatai could only dream about.
Test debut (to be all pedant), it wouldn't be half as anticipated if Hansen had just thrown him a bone in the early season matches or against Japan.
If ref wasn't complaining to the ref we'd likely be complaining too - Barnes actually put both Read and Best in their place ... which was quite funny.
@nepia said in Ireland Vs All Blacks:
Barnes actually put both Read and Best in their place ... which was quite funny.
That is one of the problems with Barnes. He is an arrogant, know all.
Yes, refs need to control, but they need to listen too.
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@mn5 said in Ireland Vs All Blacks:
Reads whinging to the ref is pretty embarrassing.
.....and I don't recall an AB debut half as eagerly anticipated as Akira Ioanes. Ever. His fern legend is the stuff Charlie Ngatai could only dream about.
Test debut (to be all pedant), it wouldn't be half as anticipated if Hansen had just thrown him a bone in the early season matches or against Japan.
If ref wasn't complaining to the ref we'd likely be complaining too - Barnes actually put both Read and Best in their place ... which was quite funny.
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@nepia yep, gotta be in the eR of the ref or people will moan he isn't talking to the ref enough.
Yea I'm not a fan of Barnes style, but he was pretty consistent today.
@taniwharugby said in Ireland Vs All Blacks:
@nepia yep, gotta be in the eR of the ref or people will moan he isn't talking to the ref enough.
Yea I'm not a fan of Barnes style, but he was pretty consistent today.
In typical Barnes fashion there were a few 'flat' passes missed - yet a perfectly fine pass was pulled up.
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@taniwharugby said in Ireland Vs All Blacks:
@nepia yep, gotta be in the eR of the ref or people will moan he isn't talking to the ref enough.
Yea I'm not a fan of Barnes style, but he was pretty consistent today.
In typical Barnes fashion there were a few 'flat' passes missed - yet a perfectly fine pass was pulled up.
@nepia haha yeah that was very funny (given his history with forward passes) and I reckon if he'd let it go, we had won the ball and were looking good down the right side..but yeah, you come to expect him to not know what a forward pass is.
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@nepia said in Ireland Vs All Blacks:
Barnes actually put both Read and Best in their place ... which was quite funny.
That is one of the problems with Barnes. He is an arrogant, know all.
Yes, refs need to control, but they need to listen too.
@snowy said in Ireland Vs All Blacks:
@nepia said in Ireland Vs All Blacks:
Barnes actually put both Read and Best in their place ... which was quite funny.
That is one of the problems with Barnes. He is an arrogant, know all.
Yes, refs need to control, but they need to listen too.
Yep when he shot down Read in particular that was funny as fuck and unfortunately made our captain look a bit of a tool.
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In a year the last few games may seem like a distant memory but it seems more and more likely we are seeing the wheels come off. 3 halves of rugby without a try isn't AB rugby, win or lose. If this is keeping the powder dry, there better be a ton of powder or we are setting ourselves up for not only a world cup failure but an Aussie-like slide down the rankings.
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Barnes was really good except that imaginary forward pass. Common sense with the aerial battle and thought he didn't let the crowd get to him too much. Those penalties in the last part of the 1st half were so dumb from the ABs they should have been yellow for "retarded play".
Akira is not being picked exactly because of the nature of the game last night. If that comment needs further explanation then you need to go back and watch Akira play without the blinkers on.
It is obvious to most except us AB fans that the team is in decline. Some of the pre-game analysis from the more knowledgeable NH punters was spot on. -
Isn't it funny how we all watch the same game, but come to very different conclusions?
I thought DMac was about our best player for the first 50 minutes. He was good under the high ball, despite a lot coming his way, and with heaps of pressure. He did the bulk of the heavy lifting at first receiver in that half as well, with Barrett playing the ranging role. He took the line on repeatedly, and made their defense nervous most times (hence the reason a bloke built like a halfback was the only one not getting smacked), and that take of the chip and offload to Barrett was glorious. He also kicked quite well. I was actually disappointed when the coaches did their "sub by numbers" and took him off.
Whereas we get the curious case of Scott Barrett. He's getting a heap of love, and did play a good game. But my opinion, he played a good game as a sort of 3rd lock, tight and tough and good at set piece. The problem there is he was playing blindside, and i thought his lack of foot speed cost us. Now, that's not really his fault, he's not a quick guy, and asking him to play that way is unfair. But, with Read getting pretty fucking slow, i thought our loose forwards were smashed around the park. Watch how often their 3 loose forwards turned up out wide and had free rein at the breakdown because our guys couldn't get there in time. Ardie had a lot to do as by far the quickest forward we had.
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Barnes was really good except that imaginary forward pass. Common sense with the aerial battle and thought he didn't let the crowd get to him too much. Those penalties in the last part of the 1st half were so dumb from the ABs they should have been yellow for "retarded play".
Akira is not being picked exactly because of the nature of the game last night. If that comment needs further explanation then you need to go back and watch Akira play without the blinkers on.
It is obvious to most except us AB fans that the team is in decline. Some of the pre-game analysis from the more knowledgeable NH punters was spot on.I'd say the reality is most AB fans have been acutely aware of the slide since we lost to then barely scraped by SA and got extremely lucky with England. Realistically we could have lost all those games.
If the loss to England a few years back was a pebble under the towel, this is a stalagmite.
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@unite said in Ireland Vs All Blacks:
I fail to believe that they are keeping their powder dry. Just not good enough today.
I wouldnt count on it , but there is the possibility they are keeping tactics for later ,
But they still wanted to win today , no doubt about that
