The Silver Fern

@ACT-Crusader said in Scotland v All Blacks:

@pooler-fan said in Scotland v All Blacks:

Quote from Tom English on the BBC, sums it up quite well from a Scottish perspective.
Scotland could and should have won. They looked immortality in the eye and said "not today", as if 120 years isn't long enough to wait.

They’ve stared immortality in the eye in each of the three previous tests. And whilst there were many talking up the “best opportunity” to break the curse, I do find the historical context interesting because many would say that lesser Scotland teams than yesterdays were right in those three tests with opportunities to win against better AB teams than what was on display yesterday.

Scotland (and Wales in the past) have lost close matches purely because of mentality against NZ.
Those top few inches are what wins test matches, did the Scottish players subconsciously really believe they were going to win that test match even at 17 all when they were pushing for a score?
On the other hand someone like DMAC comes off the bench fully expecting to make important decisions to impact the result. That 50/22 given the game situation at the time was fuckin epic, never mind the try or penalty.

Well that was a tough watch at times but at least we gave it a lash.
LRZ is our standout operator, shame he's stuck out on the wing.
NZ too quick and powerful for Wales to cope with, shame to see Reece getting on the score sheet - I'd rather have lost by more without him getting over the line.

Scrappy game to watch not helped by Chuck Berry giving Ireland the licence at the breakdown to cause havoc.
Thought the AB's hooker & 6 were epic - made some serious post contact metres.
Ireland have been great over the last few years but didn't help themselves with their bench, I'm all for using experience but O'Mahony, Healy, Murray etc should be put out to pasture now. They have plenty of young talents in the URC - use them.
Roigard looked great off the bench.

Phew,
At least a new coaching team can come in with a clean slate without that bloomin' horrendous loss record hanging over them like a dark cloud.
We don't have the players we once had but there are some nuggets that can develop given time.
We can only work with what we have, onwards and upwards

This whole series for me will be defined by poor selection.

@sparky said in Wales v All Blacks:

No disrespect to Wales, they battled hard and scored four good tries, but they were weakest team we have played all year and that was our easiest win for some time. It felt like a bit of a training run at times.

It was a strange watch from a Welsh perspective.
I was fully expecting a 50 point defeat given how awful we have been over the last 2 years.
Pleased to see us score a few tries and look threatening out wide particularly, but surprised how easily we got to make ground in that outside channel against you.
Made me think it's a shame our team of a decade ago with the likes of Warburton, Faletau, AWJ etc didn't get a chance to play against this NZ team. They managed the odd win against SA and Aus but NZ at that time were always way too good.
We've now got a totally pointless gave against SA next week which is outside the window and we have to say goodbye to 12 or 13 of this squad to England and France.
It's going to be an utter disaster.

Ref was utterly shocking & that's from a Wales supporter.
Dee or Biggar should've been carded for persistent infringement.
Lucky win but I'll take it, couple of decent tries. We were always going to be under the cosh for long periods, they have some truly gifted individuals.

Selection questions should haunt Australia, why not select Tupou for the 23 in tests 1&2? Why wasn't Uru involved?
Farrell made some odd selections too, Aki, Freeman and Lowe were pretty poor throughout.
Tuipolutu if fit is a couple of levels above Aki these days.
Biggest question for me though is why do Australia wear orange instead of gold??

@Catogrande think Martin Johnson mentioned that after the game that England wouldn't have learned anything about themselves.
It was pathetically easy for the men in white.
I can take getting stuffed against a top class NZ or Bok side but England hadn't shown anything during the tournament to think Wales would get blown away so easily. For them to just roll over seemingly without any fight was an awful watch.
It seemed like a home match for them given the rousing renditions of Swing Low, that shows the apathy and financial restraints many Welsh supporters find themselves in these days I guess.
The WRU will be happy that it sold out and they made a few million I guess.

Nic White is a spiky little fella isn't he

Rhys Webb won that game for Wales by simply playing heads up rugby at times & just doing the right thing not the premeditated thing.
Italy struggled with the favourites tag I feel, the added expectation seemed to make them add more errors into their game.

NZ intensity since halftime has definitely gone up a couple of notches.

Don't think I can watch any more of Ben Earl celebrating every little thing like he's won the RWC without punching the TV.

Wales online comment - "rugby's version of watching two bald men fighting over a comb" !!!

Shame about Wainwright, he was the only real stand out player for Wales last week.
Only 2 changes in the Welsh side with Botham replacing Wainwright in the backrow and Winnett coming in at fullback with Liam Williams moving to wing in place of last week's debutant Josh Hathaway.
I was hoping we'd see the end of Gats experiment with Grady at 12, but sadly no.
I'm not expecting as close a game as last week, Aus will be better Wales won't.
Aus by 15+

@Catogrande there are systematic problems with the Welsh game from the top down which can't be fixed overnight. We have too many sides for the current finances to stretch to, we were offered 3 sides in an Anglo Welsh league a while ago and turned the offer down. Whether England wanted or needed the Welsh sides is another matter but for sponsorship, TV rights and supporters it would've been a huge boost.
But anything like this would mean the WRU losing any semblance of control which they can't/won't do. They first turned down 5 clubs into the then Allied Dunbar League in 1995 and we've been playing catch-up ever since.
Narrow minded navel gazing by idiots in blazers who couldn't run a bath never mind a £100 million business.

All this is still no excuse for the inept display yesterday. I don't know if the occasion got to the players more than it had before.
Even players like Jac Morgan who had been pretty imperious in every game even in defeat was off colour - I don't think I've ever seen him falling off tackles like yesterday. He's played against these players before & arguably better ones and not looked like that.
I was going to watch the game back today but I've not got enough wine left in the house to drown my sorrows again.

Fabulous stuff from Argentina

Quote from Tom English on the BBC, sums it up quite well from a Scottish perspective.
Scotland could and should have won. They looked immortality in the eye and said "not today", as if 120 years isn't long enough to wait.

The intensity of that game was off the charts

Brilliant last ditch tackle by Roigard there