The Silver Fern

Been very impressed with Caleb Clarke this match. Busy, energetic and not falling over every time he catches the ball

Not to take anything away from the Argies, but there’s no excuse for an ABs team at home to play like that. Absolutely unacceptable. That’s a pretty rude reality check for this team.

This ABs team definitely feels like a diamond in the rough that’s starting to find its feet. Having said that, don’t underestimate how much Cane and some of the older heads have contributed. They may not be world-beaters anymore, but they know what hard yards and high performance feels like. There are signs of the potential there, and best of all, most of the positivity is from the new breed.

Was at the game last night. Couple of observations:

• Va’ai and Ardie were very good
• Jordan is a weapon obviously, but prone to making bad calls from fullback
• Chips were useful on a heavy ground to turn the defense around initially, variation seems to be the key to upsetting rush defence
• Scrum a big part of ABs gaining upper hand
• kicking (place-kicking aside) is very average from ABs. Aimless field kicking (including box kicks) put us under pressure a few times, touch-finding never has any range. DMac and Beaudy are both wanting in those areas. Jordie with a howler near the end.
• Argies didn’t turn up and seemed pretty gutted at the end
• Disappointing how ABs lost shape after such a great start, but forgivable

If the Brumbies can beat Canes - Chiefs - Saders/Blues you’ve got to say they deserve the title. That’s a pretty intimidating run.

Congratulations, Pumas. Totally out-played us.

@nostrildamus said in Italy v All Blacks:

ALB used to be known as Mr Reliable.

He is reliable… you can count on him for a yellow card in the 70th minute just about every game.

Lio Willie is a good foil for Ardie, I think. He’s industrious without being flashy.

Hey, at least our win rate against the French is now up to 25% from the last 4 games

I’m gutted for Stevenson. What does that guy have to do to get a break?

@KiwiMurph

I’m far more worried about our forward play than our 15-10 combo. I’m very doubtful our front 8 have three big games in them against the likes of Ireland and SA.

At least the ABs had the decency to suck in the previous game too, so we didn’t go into this with false expectations

Razor needs to take his man-love goggles off re Blackadder

Positives? Ratima looked quick, Darry looked ok… didn’t lose a scrum in the first half

The chip in our own 40 is one of my most hated plays

After last week, this was a bit of a statement test. Unfortunately they’ve made the wrong statement.

@antipodean said in Chiefs v Crusaders:

Not sure the weight of captaincy is helping Havili's game.

Yeah. He’s struggling to reach the giddy heights of just being ‘pretty average’. Well done Chiefs, blew us away in the 2nd.

Beaudy autocorrects to Beauty. And I think that’s apt.

@Kirwan said in Springboks vs All Blacks 2:

Shit selections, shit squad, shit coaches.

Quite the achievement to make me miss Fosters reign. We are soft as fuck.

Yeah, a Foster-coached Blues would have rag-dolled the Boks today

@Tim said in Chiefs v Crusaders:

@Steven-Harris He did miss the tackle on Roe.

Yes, but his energy and effort in that miss was immense.