All Blacks vs Fiji
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There are times when I come here and feel like I must have watched a completely different game to others.
Thought Blackadder was good. He showed more running and linking than any loose forward in our first 3 tests. Yes, short of a gallop, but that's to be expected. Yeah, it's only an understrength Fiji. But for chrissakes people are claiming he lost the ball twice because he made ground and the cleaners didn't get there? terrible play getting yourself isolated with all that go-forward that people have been crying out for there mate, better reign it in.
Sititi looked good too, but needs an even stronger disclaimer as that's against an understrength Fiji that were beaten about 40 minutes before he even took the field.
Jacobson won some lineouts; against an understrength Fiji who weren't really competing. Doesn't really strike me as a compelling argument. I don't really see why you would pick all three of Dalton, Cane, Jacobson.
Proctor is getting raved about, but I saw several instances where he didn't find his outsides - pretty similar to those that created discussion of Ioane being dropped last week...against a far better side. I thought he played solidly, and generally a debutante choosing to hang onto the ball rather than throw a pass he's not confident of isn't a bad thing - but fuck me the provincial bias in posting is strong this year.
ALB was good.
Clarke was good.
Aumua was good.
Hope Ratima's head is okay.@reprobate said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
- but fuck me the provincial bias in posting is strong this year.
Provincial bias = someone having a different viewpoint to you
Regarding Proctor and not passing, Centres shouldn't always pass no matter what. my view is Proctor got it right this week. Reiko didn't last week
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Stats
Lineouts - NZ 17/17; Fiji 8/10
Scrums - NZ 6/6; Fiji 7/11
Tackles - NZ 114/139 (82%); Fiji 145/200 (73%)
Penalties - NZ 8; Fiji 8
Rucks won - NZ 87/89 (97%); Fiji 72/74 (97%) -
Some notable individual stats
Tackles / missed tackles
Blackadder 7/4
Proctor 7/3
Hotham 7/3
S. Barrett 6/2
Aumua 4/2Jacobson 8/1
ALB 8/1
Reece 7/1
Williams 7/1
Bell 7/1
Newell 6/1Sititi 8/0
Savea 7/0
Tosl 6/0 -
Tosi made almost as many tackles as Blackadder, Blackadder accounts for almost 20% of missed tackles.
Yeah he had a great game.
Time to fuxk him off
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@mariner4life said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@booboo said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@mikedogz said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
This game is being played at 2:30pm Saturday NZ time. Right when a lot of club finals are being played.
Bummer.
Needs better coordination
we're paying a home game against Fiji in the US. The wants or needs of the NZ rugby public actually matter fuck all to the NZRU
I'm guessing this is to do with Silverlake's strategy for growing NZ Rugby and especially its revenue.
If we could get 1/100th proportion of American kids wandering round in $55 All Black caps that cost $5 to make - as there are NZ kids wandering round in NBA caps - then probably there's $50 million bucks.
These are made up numbers - but, there are 8 billion people wandering the planet and a good proportion of them would like to have a stylish black cap. NZ Rugby and Silverlake just need to work out how to make sure it has an AB logo on it.
These sort of games are a start.
@Chris-B said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@mariner4life said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@booboo said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@mikedogz said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
This game is being played at 2:30pm Saturday NZ time. Right when a lot of club finals are being played.
Bummer.
Needs better coordination
we're paying a home game against Fiji in the US. The wants or needs of the NZ rugby public actually matter fuck all to the NZRU
I'm guessing this is to do with Silverlake's strategy for growing NZ Rugby and especially its revenue.
If we could get 1/100th proportion of American kids wandering round in $55 All Black caps that cost $5 to make - as there are NZ kids wandering round in NBA caps - then probably there's $50 million bucks.
These are made up numbers - but, there are 8 billion people wandering the planet and a good proportion of them would like to have a stylish black cap. NZ Rugby and Silverlake just need to work out how to make sure it has an AB logo on it.
These sort of games are a start.
You won't be far off it. A pair of Jordans 1s cost approx $40US shipped and sell for $180US or more depending on the hype.
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Tosi made almost as many tackles as Blackadder, Blackadder accounts for almost 20% of missed tackles.
Yeah he had a great game.
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Tosi made almost as many tackles as Blackadder, Blackadder accounts for almost 20% of missed tackles.
Yeah he had a great game.
@Bones said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Tosi made almost as many tackles as Blackadder, Blackadder accounts for almost 20% of missed tackles.
Yeah he had a great game.
Great! We agree.
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Tosi made almost as many tackles as Blackadder, Blackadder accounts for almost 20% of missed tackles.
Yeah he had a great game.
@Bones said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Tosi made almost as many tackles as Blackadder, Blackadder accounts for almost 20% of missed tackles.
Yeah he had a great game.
Or, attempted more tackles than anyone else - despite lacking match fitness and 'couldn't keep up', 'struggled with the pace'.
Meanwhile Proctor misses 3 and is the messiah who needs to urgently replace one of our best players from the WC (and I say that as a long time Ioane doubter). -
Bladder was mixed out there. Not a 7 at all. His lines were poor - usually coming in the side of the ruck. Struggled to find people to tackle. Can see why you'd consider him at 6, but at 7 it's a strong no thanks from me. Our loosies are not setting the world on fire and just seem unbalanced.
Separately, folk need to slow down a bit on reaching conclusions for the backs in particular. They got time and space you don't get against good teams. ALB (who's excellent generally) looked like the second coming of Cullen. That will not map across to a team that pressures us with rush defence.
All of our weaknesses seemed to be there still; lineouts (Aumua much improved), exits, kicking, carrying in the tight. It looks easy against a side that misses 55 tackles, but I'd be very cautious of assuming we've cracked the issues that have plagued us for so long. If you were coaching against this AB side you'd be running a simple game plan based on rush defence, kicking and contesting lineouts making us try to exit.
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Bladder was mixed out there. Not a 7 at all. His lines were poor - usually coming in the side of the ruck. Struggled to find people to tackle. Can see why you'd consider him at 6, but at 7 it's a strong no thanks from me. Our loosies are not setting the world on fire and just seem unbalanced.
Separately, folk need to slow down a bit on reaching conclusions for the backs in particular. They got time and space you don't get against good teams. ALB (who's excellent generally) looked like the second coming of Cullen. That will not map across to a team that pressures us with rush defence.
All of our weaknesses seemed to be there still; lineouts (Aumua much improved), exits, kicking, carrying in the tight. It looks easy against a side that misses 55 tackles, but I'd be very cautious of assuming we've cracked the issues that have plagued us for so long. If you were coaching against this AB side you'd be running a simple game plan based on rush defence, kicking and contesting lineouts making us try to exit.
@nzzp said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
All of our weaknesses seemed to be there still; lineouts (Aumua much improved), exits, kicking, carrying in the tight. It looks easy against a side that misses 55 tackles, but I'd be very cautious of assuming we've cracked the issues that have plagued us for so long. If you were coaching against this AB side you'd be running a simple game plan based on rush defence, kicking and contesting lineouts making us try to exit.
I thought we contested lineout in England 2 and this test not too badly.
Exits were pretty good in Fiji test. DMac was getting excellent distance more so than Auckland.
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@nzzp said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
All of our weaknesses seemed to be there still; lineouts (Aumua much improved), exits, kicking, carrying in the tight. It looks easy against a side that misses 55 tackles, but I'd be very cautious of assuming we've cracked the issues that have plagued us for so long. If you were coaching against this AB side you'd be running a simple game plan based on rush defence, kicking and contesting lineouts making us try to exit.
I thought we contested lineout in England 2 and this test not too badly.
Exits were pretty good in Fiji test. DMac was getting excellent distance more so than Auckland.
@ACT-Crusader McKenzie exits fine. Better than Mo'unga and Barrett (B), so that is a clear improvement from last year. Perofeta is only okay, and the wingers Telea, Reece, Clarke are not good. Narawa has a long boot, I think? but is down the pecking order by the looks. Jordie can obviously kick it a long way.
McKenzie dropping back to do most of it makes sense, but it inevitably turns into forceback a fair bit, and if he has to chase a kick then we get left with Perofeta/Telea/Reece returning fire. Might be able to adjust the tactics slightly so that Jordie drops as the other option. -
I have a sneaky feeling the coaches/selectors are going to be fairly happy with Blackadder's game. A few plays went though him, either off the lineout or out the back of the ruck and he was pretty accurate in what he was required to do. He was on hand to support the ball carrier a fair bit as they went into contact, and he was a general nuisance at ruck time. He didn't show he was the second coming, but none of the 6.5s have screamed 'pick me' or 'drop me', and Blackadder is no exception.
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I have a sneaky feeling the coaches/selectors are going to be fairly happy with Blackadder's game. A few plays went though him, either off the lineout or out the back of the ruck and he was pretty accurate in what he was required to do. He was on hand to support the ball carrier a fair bit as they went into contact, and he was a general nuisance at ruck time. He didn't show he was the second coming, but none of the 6.5s have screamed 'pick me' or 'drop me', and Blackadder is no exception.
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@Crazy-Horse exactly this. better link play than anyone else has shown so far.
Although I guess if link play was a priority then you'd pick Hoskins.@reprobate said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@Crazy-Horse exactly this. better link play than anyone else has shown so far.
Although I guess if link play was a priority then you'd pick Hoskins.You mean at 6 not loosies per se? As Ardie links best...
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@Bones said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Tosi made almost as many tackles as Blackadder, Blackadder accounts for almost 20% of missed tackles.
Yeah he had a great game.
Or, attempted more tackles than anyone else - despite lacking match fitness and 'couldn't keep up', 'struggled with the pace'.
Meanwhile Proctor misses 3 and is the messiah who needs to urgently replace one of our best players from the WC (and I say that as a long time Ioane doubter).@reprobate said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@Bones said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Tosi made almost as many tackles as Blackadder, Blackadder accounts for almost 20% of missed tackles.
Yeah he had a great game.
Or, attempted more tackles than anyone else - despite lacking match fitness and 'couldn't keep up', 'struggled with the pace'.
Meanwhile Proctor misses 3 and is the messiah who needs to urgently replace one of our best players from the WC (and I say that as a long time Ioane doubter).Read into those stats all you like but a couple of those misses weren't necessarily one on one misses. Proctor put himself into a few situations where, because of his high work rate off the ball he made a couple lunges on the next player out after covering the guy he was marking up on. Maybe he shouldn't have made those attempts and let the player who was meant to be covering those guys take the hit, but that's the sort of player Proctor is, he always pushes hard.
He's the best defensive centre in NZ and that's the biggest reason he's been picked.
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I have a sneaky feeling the coaches/selectors are going to be fairly happy with Blackadder's game. A few plays went though him, either off the lineout or out the back of the ruck and he was pretty accurate in what he was required to do. He was on hand to support the ball carrier a fair bit as they went into contact, and he was a general nuisance at ruck time. He didn't show he was the second coming, but none of the 6.5s have screamed 'pick me' or 'drop me', and Blackadder is no exception.
@Crazy-Horse said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
I have a sneaky feeling the coaches/selectors are going to be fairly happy with Blackadder's game. A few plays went though him, either off the lineout or out the back of the ruck and he was pretty accurate in what he was required to do. He was on hand to support the ball carrier a fair bit as they went into contact, and he was a general nuisance at ruck time. He didn't show he was the second coming, but none of the 6.5s have screamed 'pick me' or 'drop me', and Blackadder is no exception.
Here’s Richard Knowler from Stuff.co.nz’s views on Todds son….just in case the previous superlatives weren’t silly enough.
“Ethan Blackadder was his typical robust self when he started at openside flanker against Fiji; he was uncompromising and worked like Sisyphus repeatedly rolling a big pebble up and down the hill.
Blackadder can also play at No 6, and it could yet be his best position for the All Blacks” -
One positive this year is DMac is a clear upgrade on Mo'unga. We just need to find a suitable backup now.
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One positive this year is DMac is a clear upgrade on Mo'unga. We just need to find a suitable backup now.
@No-Quarter said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
One positive this year is DMac is a clear upgrade on Mo'unga. We just need to find a suitable backup now.
The Cantabs are too busy with their shields up for Blackadder to take this bait.
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Tosi made almost as many tackles as Blackadder, Blackadder accounts for almost 20% of missed tackles.
Yeah he had a great game.
