Ireland vs All Blacks (2018)

[gt12]

My guess is that they used those games to test different scenarios and game plans. I’m not sure that it’s ‘trying’ or ‘allowing’ a loss as much as refining strategies - which often don’t work out and losses happen. Having said that, we were one dropped ball away from probably winning that game anyway.

I’m certainly hoping that they’ve got plenty of plans for tonight against the Poms.

[canefan]

@gt12 said in Ireland Vs All Blacks:

My guess is that they used those games to test different scenarios and game plans. I’m not sure that it’s ‘trying’ or ‘allowing’ a loss as much as refining strategies - which often don’t work out and losses happen. Having said that, we were one dropped ball away from probably winning that game anyway.

I’m certainly hoping that they’ve got plenty of plans for tonight against the Poms.

This is exactly what I thought. Hansen has been using tests over the last year as live fire exercises. The plan has slowly come together in front of our eyes in plain sight. And no one expected it to be a rugby revolution. All that remains is to execute the plan with the required accuracy

[reprobate]

Are we really that full of ourselves that we are going to claim dry powder every game we lose? We got beaten up in Chicago with some poor selections, and we got beaten up in Dublin after a very tough match vs the poms a week before and at the end of a long season.
The Chicago one we took lightly, but the Dublin match was one we were very much targeting to win.

[canefan]

@reprobate if we win the cup, that Dublin match might be looked upon as a monumental moment. The irish beat us well and maybe it forced a tactical rethink

[Kirwan]

2019 dry powder, before that trying out new tactics (like any other team)

[Bovidae]

No team goes onto the field wanting to lose but Schmidt mentioned that Ireland used this year's 6N to try different things looking ahead to the RWC. OK, you can argue it didn't work for them, but international coaches only have so many games to tweak tactics and gameplans before a RWC.

[nzzp]

@reprobate said in Ireland Vs All Blacks:

Are we really that full of ourselves that we are going to claim dry powder every game we lose? We got beaten up in Chicago with some poor selections, and we got beaten up in Dublin after a very tough match vs the poms a week before and at the end of a long season.
The Chicago one we took lightly, but the Dublin match was one we were very much targeting to win.

Dublin we got beaten fair and square, and well played Ireland.

That said, I am arrogant enough to think we played uncharacteristically poorly, and with a very limited game plan. The 1014 thought so too - excellent play by Ireland, but unusually poor from NZ (

). At the time there was much gnashing of teeth, but also a lot of congratulations to Ireland,a nd recognition of what they did well - shut us down completely

[Bones]

@Toddy said in Ireland Vs All Blacks:

It's a fine line between resting players and 'keeping powder dry' to just playing friendlies between world cups.

I just wish the All Blacks tried their best to win every game but maybe that's not commercially viable anymore. Have we seen shift to winning every game "if we can" as long as it will provide us a better chance of winning the world cup.

Yeah you've got to adapt and be ahead of the game these days eh, you can't just throw out 15 ace rugby players and smoke the oppo. So there's going to be "experimentation" in tests.

[ACT Crusader]

Well this thread was a blast from the past. Some of the old posters like Rancid and MN5

[kiwiinmelb]

@ACT-Crusader said in Ireland vs All Blacks (2018):

Well this thread was a blast from the past. Some of the old posters like Rancid and MN5

What happened to those two ?