The Silver Fern

I kept a slightly closer eye on Will Jordan this game. Hes such a strange player to watch. And he is the polar opposite to the dual playmaker role that we tried to deploy.

In the attacking line, he is an absolute seagull looking to run off shoulders, he is barely ever actually in the line as such. when it comes off its excellent and he has already got a few yards on the defender because hes so quick off the mark. But two things i noticed

• When he spots a gap and runs it - If he doesnt get the pass, he runs about 3 or 4 metres past the play and completely removes himself from the next phase like a league player. Its really strange, i dont see anyone else do it like this, most backs are itching to get back in the line and will stop on a dime to reset
• When he does make a break - his decision making is not flash. But its almost like he doesnt allow himself to slow down and look around, he is purely ears pinned and go. And his body is so locked in to his running style that he just cant give a good pass when it arises.

Its like hes built for pure line breaks

@sparky Him and Jimmy Gopperth battling out to see who will be last man standing from the lions 2002 team

Zarn Sullivan to Hawkes Bay for the NPC. Wonder with Danny Toala gone if he'll be seen in the midfield

It just reeks of desperation. We go through a tough spell and our HEAD COACH starts tying himself & NZR in knots trying to get a player back who obviously wasnt invested enough in the black jersey to stick around and build for another world cup. He gets to go off and have fun time in Japan, we toil away, take a few tough losses and develop some young players (albeit not at 10, which HAS to be intentional). And he gets to swoop back in just before the world cup and be treated as some savior? If he comes back and wins us a world cup, yup fair enough thats some story, but in the case this backfires, it has to be one of the weakest displays of tunnel vision and blind faith NZ rugby has ever seen, Richie has razor and the union wrapped around his little finger

Roigard has the true all black mentality and self belief that’s been missing. So fucking refreshing.
Leroy Carter too, actually sitting sualii and ikitau down, which should be proctors job.

I saw on another platform someone suggesting that Love had given Hansen some honest feedback around game plan and they’ve had a falling out. Similarly, there’s a crusaders vs the rest divide within camp with only a handful of players attending Cody Taylor’s 100th test drinks. All hearsay but sounds kinda believable

@Landers92 and Jeff Wilson said it should be Dylan Pledger! They literally offer no better insight than any battler at the pub, just pumping the players from their own super rugby sides

Although it wasnt consequential to the result in the end - What was the point of having Ruben Love on the bench? Why would you have a 10/15 and sub him on for a wing? Why not have an actual wing on the bench, it doesnt seem like he ever planned on subbing Dmac or BB.

Its like theyre playing Prem 2s and he just wanted to give him a run for the sake of it, but couldnt fathom taking his sons off the pitch

@sparky Honestly kind of impressed that hes going North. He definitely could have easily gone and ripped up in Japan for 6 months for an easier ride. Will be very interesting to see how he goes in that environment, considering hes been sort of the golden boy for auckland/blues for so long and will need to prove himself in Leinster, and will be directly compared with Jordie having just been there

The ruck defense was one of the most frustrating parts of the game. We were constantly watching them wrestle and disrupt our ball as we had only committed one cleaner & one man at best to lock down the ruck, making it terribly difficult for Roigard to clear the ball. This was the same issue that we had against Ireland which i believe made it appear that Ratima had a bad game - when in reality he was having to tidy up loose/disrupted ball at the back of the ruck.
Why cant we seem to adjust to this in game?

Fun Fact: Auckland based teams are 0/9 so far in the NPC

@antipodean said in All Blacks v Argentina II:

These stats are not good viewing. How the score is that close beggars belief.

Thats the stat i was looking for - 40 missed tackles. Thats whats bizzarre. I reckon at least 10 of them were on their 12, that bastard ran like an animal the whole game (pretty sure he was on for 80). We dont have anyone like that.

AB backline looks like a bunch of middle managers, 'composed, communicators' etc but noone who puts their hand up and wants to hurt some people when they carry and defend

@ShaquilleOatmeal The Ardie situation is arguably even tougher than the BB situation. It feels like the Barrett situation will run its course following this tour, where he physically is not up to it and its fairly obvious even to the lesser engaged fans. Beaudie could retire from international footy or just have an 'injury cloud' and fade into a much lesser role in the squad. Its not a hard decision for Razor to make.

Ardie on the other hand is actually still in seemingly great physical condition, but is just refusing to be a role player in the team. For one, its not immediately clear that the coaching staff even see this issue, but assuming they actually do some analysis on this - Razor has to either re-train him into actually peforming his core role (& him actually doing it on the field) or drop him for an actual 7 who can and will tackle and hit rucks all day. For a coach/organisation that seems to be so heavily dictated by broader influence, i dont see this happening until it becomes so bad that everyone starts to agree (as per BB situation) and even then all it takes is a short instagram snippet of a turnover or big dummie and the masses will be satisfied that all is well. I just cant see a situation where Ardie is dropped, and i cant see one where he changes his play. So will be a holding pattern through to the RWC

@brodean said in All Blacks vs Springboks II:

@Duluth said in All Blacks vs Springboks II:

Here's the stats for what I was talking about above

What I get from those stats is tight forwards should not be passing that much in a game.

They should be hitting rucks, hitting mauls, with some carries.

The out the back stuff is horse shit. Its the same pattern the Crusaders played last year to their detriment. All of the strike runners end up running diagonally across the field and no one is running hard and straight onto the ball.

Whoever was running the attack for the NZu20s this year was doing a very good job. The stacked backline they ran for a lot of their strike moves was excellent - and mobilised/executed with players who have had a best 2-3 tournaments together - far less than the 50-60 games many of our current All Blacks have had to develop.

One tactic i highly enjoyed was our aggressive counter rucking. We blew over a fair number of rucks, as well as giving Williamse massive issues trying to get quick/tidy ball. The impressive thing was that the saffas had often actually committed a couple of forwards, but we still were able to get in there and disrupt. This was particularly targeted at the first or second ruck after a boxie. A tactic that came off well

@Gunner

You can tell beaudie is really not comfortable with contact anymore. He gives several hospitals a game when hes caught with no options as opposed to taking it in. You look at Sascha especially and how he challenges the line and see how much difference it can make. Or Libbok who doesnt hit the line as much - he puts pin point bombs up.

Ive been a semi BB apologist for a while now, but i really think now his game is not working

Was he the one that made that rapid break away try against the ABs that was then disallowed? I remember thinking he looked very athletic for a lock

@BerniesCorner I think part of the issue with JB clearing is that hes got a long wind up, he cant clear as quickly so puts himself under pressure of charge down. Additionally, if you see him in the pocket as opposed to set in the line, it makes it even more obvious hes clearing. Really restricts his use within our 22.

The other thing about kicking long from open play is that its only really beneficial if you find grass. Back fields are significantly more organised now than even 10 years ago, let alone 40 years ago where people are thinking of these golden days of kicking for territory like fox was around. Hoofing it down field to a prepared full back, wing or 10 is arguably more dangerous than a bomb/chip, as they get a good 5-10 seconds to find space, find their forwards, find anyone out of position to exploit.

Sure, BB (and others) dont always nail these shorter kicks but the strategy is definitely targeted at manipulating rush Ds and kicking to put pressure on the opposition structure in my opinion

Would have been good to see Xavi Taele get a crack

@sparky said in Scotland v All Blacks:

How many bad games can Ardie Savea and Beauden Barrett keep having in Black?

I can't remember any of our players in the past escaping scrutiny for such consistently disappointing performances.

Thats the issue - there is a cognitive dissonance across the whole of NZ (& world) rugby media and consumers - people genuinely watch these guys play and their branding just over rides any actual critical thought about how these guys should be playing

Surely with JRK back from injury, he can leapfrog Fihaki in any of these discussions. His style would suit 14 for the ABs in my opinion