Blues v Chiefs
Late but belated match report from Saturday night. Been an IRL whirlwind for a few weeks, so good to be back at a computer for a while. Few things to cover off
Tom Robinson Outstanding as captain. Talked more to the refs in one half of rugby than Patty T did in the whole season to date. I love Pat T, and he's awesome to lead in the team, but influencing refs is not his strong suit. More Tom talking to refs please. Also, he arguably won us the game with his super astute captains challenges.
Captains Challenges Can't stand them. This week they benefitted us, but they suck. Seeing refereeing teams standing around with hands on hips talking is just stupid. At the ground you have no idea what's going on, and they are a goddamn lottery. Burn them with fire, they are a blight on the game. Which brings us nicely to
Goal line drop outs Suck idea as well. FFS, who comes up with this stuff - totally changes the balance of 'ruck just outside the goal line' to 'just over' goes from 5 m scrum to getting the ball back on halfway. It's nuts.
Refs and TJs I commented before the game that I thought the standard was abysmal. They don't get laws to help the, but it's a lottery at times. In this game there were a couple of clear howlers on the touch judges (feet in touch, carried out) that are clear and obvious, but not picked up in real time by the person standing there. Overall, all year it's been super average. I won't start on the tip tackles/tackles in air this year -- they have gone from flavour of the month and starting with Red Cards to 'whatever'. All we want from refs is broad consistency... but one week you get a penalty reversed for a head rub, compared with grabbing players in the air having no negative consequences.
It's not easy to fix this one, but it's really really important to the health of our game in the medium to long term.
Chiefs Up for it, as expected. Nothing to lose. Scrum held up well and managed to get the ball out when it started to fall apart. Probably a fair result in the end (20 point loss), but battled bloody well to get there. Which brings us nicely to
Blues this game was a perfect example of a team that's down on confidence and looking lumbering and predictable. Last year we saw slick interpassing near sidelines, and good rugby IQ. This year we don't know who our best 9 is, and are not playing heads up rugby. Can't see and exploit space at the moment, and it shows. Despite the talent, the spine is still weak compared to most other sides in the comp (2/8/9/10/15). I think we really missed James Parsons and BB out there.
We seemed determined to give the ball back to the Chiefs and relieve pressure. Whether it was dropping goal line kickoffs out on the full, conceding stupid penalties or just plain playing poorly it was an entertaining but low skill game. That said, at 19 all you could panic and fall over, and they stepped up, controlled the game and run in 20 quick points. Genuinely can't complain about the finishing at the end.
I'll post more in the 2021 Blues thread, but at the end of the day we were one reffing decision away from a winning season and a trip to the final. It was two steps forward last year, and half a step back this year. Frustrating as a supporter. I do wonder if something has happened in camp - we played very well for three weeks, and then just shat the bed for the rest of the comp.
If I were coach, I'd forget about the backs and just use our dominant forwards in the loose to create space. When those boys get on a roll, no one can live with them - combine with a decent set piece and we'd be looking to grind down teams. Not pretty, but I'll take that over shovelling the ball around all over the place.
That said, mauls have come on a long way this year. You could see them working on them every game, mauling where previously we wouldn't. Our maul defence is much better as well - compared to where we were, we've seen massive improvement. And ultimately, that goes to us winning agains NZ sides, which we couldn't do previously. 4-4 is incredible compared to Tana and JK ... and two of those were games we did everything but win.
@crazy-horse tbf the quality of officiating at all levels of rugby has been going down for the past few years, and then there is tinkering with rules detracting from the viewing experience.
purely form an 'importance' for TV viewing, they should have done the trial for theses types of changes at NPC level (although hope the referrals are gone completely)
I think refs are often too scared to make calls for fear of getting them wrong (and even if they get them right they can get hung too)
@dan54 said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
@crazy-horse said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
I have said it before, but we have these referrals and the TMO because we fans spit the dummy when we think the officials have gotten something wrong. It wasn't long ago we were having a go at refs for not going upstairs and checking things. Like other sports, to address our moaning they brought in the referral system. Now we are whinging about that too.
Umm excuse me mate!! I not even keen on TMO, and have never wanted ref to go upstairs. I got a real thing about people that whinge about refs. I never seen a ref that makes more mistakes than players. And all the time I coached I harped at my players that ref is always right, even when he's wrong, so deal with it!! I don't even like TMO in cricket, they taking the humanity out of our games!
You are a better person than me. I would hate me if I reffed me. In fact, I would probably hate me if I met me.
An article written back in early March by Marc Hinton interviewing Tom Coventry the Blues forward coach ,Coventry stated he hoped the new laws would be scrapped immediately,Saturday’s fiasco goes to prove how right he was.
Hope the powers that be scrap them for the Trans Tasman.competition.
David Hill,Bryn Gatland,Tom Robinson ,four match officials all arguing the point about a play many phases ago.
The Chiefs referral on Sotutu’s try a farce as well.
@crucial said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
@taniwharugby said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
@crazy-horse i hate them full stop, as if our games don't have enough stoppages in play at present.
and that complete mess they got themselves in after the Chiefs try was a farce of epic proportions.
I don't blame the TMO for spotting the offside but the point of the captains referral was that the captain had to point out what was missed not create an opportunity to review a section of play for anything.
I'm still not sure if the sequence was correct in that I thought Fraser was playing advantage before that. I wasn't concerned about the wild pass because I thought it was throwing the dice after advantage called.
The whole thing was an embarrassing mess for all involved.Referral was a mess
TMO was a mess
Ref couldn't even remember about three penalties in a row and if he called advantage over.
Chiefs were a mess in disputing the call.
the whole thing took way too much time.
Yeah that was the annoying things for me about the whole mess - even if advantage wasn't being played, the wild pass came about because of some offside Blues players on the short side, which to my eye led TTT to pull out of his passing motion, causing the whole mess in the first place.
@trodthesod said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
David Hill
A complete dipshit who tried to claim that Chiefs already had the advantage. Anyone who can count is smarter than him, TJ, and Ian fucking Smith - the worst "rugby" commentator going.
@stargazer Always! I really don't like the constant mistakes, to say the least, those clowns make though.
@crazy-horse said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
@dan54 said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
@crazy-horse said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
I have said it before, but we have these referrals and the TMO because we fans spit the dummy when we think the officials have gotten something wrong. It wasn't long ago we were having a go at refs for not going upstairs and checking things. Like other sports, to address our moaning they brought in the referral system. Now we are whinging about that too.
Umm excuse me mate!! I not even keen on TMO, and have never wanted ref to go upstairs. I got a real thing about people that whinge about refs. I never seen a ref that makes more mistakes than players. And all the time I coached I harped at my players that ref is always right, even when he's wrong, so deal with it!! I don't even like TMO in cricket, they taking the humanity out of our games!
You are a better person than me. I would hate me if I reffed me. In fact, I would probably hate me if I met me.
Fair enough mate, doesn't make me good, just something I tried to teach myself early in piece when I started coaching kids, I figured if I blamed refs, it became easy for players I coached to find same excuse, and not to change the way thay played to adapt to ref, and took the same into coaching seniors. And funnily enough if you stand on sidelines as much as I have (and still do) watching rugby, you will see how little the huge percentage of spectators from kids level to test level ,don't really understand the laws of the game.
@crazy-horse said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
and there was at least one random Crusader dig.
Really need to up our game there. Very disappointing you lot (I've only just read it).
Barely got over one anti Crusader dig, FFS what were you all doing, watching the game or something? Hopeless.
After the Crusaders game, Leon made it seem like Tanielu Telea was a big part of our master plan to change things up, but we get it in this game and there was nothing special about it.
I did feel bad for Telea, because Leon yanks him off at the 44th minute mark. Only props get subbed that early after halftime.
@dan54 said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
@crazy-horse said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
@taniwharugby said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
@crazy-horse but the referrals are arse, seems unanimous, so there
I hate them when they go against my team!
I hate that they are used, it's against everything I taught young fellas when I coached them.
But I have no argument about us (or me at least) being called a grumpy old man
Seems like referrals probably even violate the Laws of Rugby.
9.28 Players must respect the authority of the referee. They must not dispute the referee’s decisions.
I guess since that Law comes under foul play, you could refer anyone disputing with the ref.
I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the Chiefs, and they were right in the game for 70 mins. Kapeli had a huge defensive game, Florence had impact off the bench and Lord was a nuisance in the lineout. Norris was probably the best prop on the field. Good to see the Chiefs building some depth.
@bovidae
Despite the blow out at the end, a lot of the newbies impressed. The names you mentioned in particular stood out as easily SR quality.
@chris-b said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
I guess since that Law comes under foul play, you could refer anyone disputing with the ref.
ha ha, that would be comedy gold. Get opposition halfbacks penalised continuously with disputing the ref decision
@nzzp said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
@chris-b said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
I guess since that Law comes under foul play, you could refer anyone disputing with the ref.
ha ha, that would be comedy gold. Get opposition halfbacks penalised continuously with disputing the ref decision
If you timed your referral well, the outrage would be something to behold.
The refs would enjoy it - once they realised what you were doing. You'd probably want to have memorized the Law number! 
@dice the sacrificial lamb I referred to a few posts back! He was going ok too I thought? Bounced both Sowakula and Kapeli off in the carry just before Eklunds try.
I think Tele'a is a poor fit with Black at 10.
Black stands deep in the pocket and is almost no threat to run.
Meanwhile Tele'a is not a strong distributor. So the defense can easily key in on Tele'a beside Black as they know that Black won't run or even if he does he's not particularly dangerous.
Tele'a would be better suited to a 10 who plays flatter to the line and goes at the line.
@kiwimurph said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
I think Tele'a is a poor fit with Black at 10.
Black stands deep in the pocket and is almost no threat to run.
Meanwhile Tele'a is not a strong distributor. So the defense can easily key in on Tele'a beside Black as they know that Black won't run or even if he does he's not particularly dangerous.
Tele'a would be better suited to a 10 who plays flatter to the line and goes at the line.
We'll take him for this weekend then. Alongside DMac for the line bending or holding the D so the skip pass can go to ALB.
@kiwimurph said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
Tele'a would be better suited to a 10 who plays flatter to the line and goes at the line.
It did seem strange that the Plummer-Tele'a combo wasn't used again in this match after MacDonald making such a big deal about the reason they were picked for the Crusaders game.
For the Blues, Sotutu and Robinson were really good. Sotutu seemed to rise to the challenge of facing the big Chiefs No. 8. Best game this year IMHO. Robinson just goes and goes at 100% and making some really dominant tackles.
The lack of awareness of space and putting the person outside of you into space by the Blues backs was just criminal. Really like Riko on the wing but as a centre, his default position is to pull the ears back and go for the line. The new fullback completely ignored a free Clarke outside of him on a number of occasions as well. For the backs, the parts are there but the machine has a few things to work on.
Clarke is soooo out of form! Even defensively he is running around like a headless chook. Is he looking to beat the man or just run into people? Why is he never in the right place?
The Chiefs are really on their way up, aren't they?. The head coach is getting a good rap now (McMillian?). There seems to be a really good crop of very young looseheads coming through the ranks at Super level (and esp. at the Chiefs). Surely Foster needs to take a punt of one or two with the 2023 World Cup in mind. If Moody goes down just prior or loses form.....
@old-samurai-jack said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
For the Blues, Sotutu and Robinson were really good. Sotutu seemed to rise to the challenge of facing the big Chiefs No. 8. Best game this year IMHO. Robinson just goes and goes at 100% and making some really dominant tackles.
The lack of awareness of space and putting the person outside of you into space by the Blues backs was just criminal. Really like Riko on the wing but as a centre, his default position is to pull the ears back and go for the line. The new fullback completely ignored a free Clarke outside of him on a number of occasions as well. For the backs, the parts are there but the machine has a few things to work on.
Clarke is soooo out of form! Even defensively he is running around like a headless chook. Is he looking to beat the man or just run into people? Why is he never in the right place?
The Chiefs are really on their way up, aren't they?. The head coach is getting a good rap now (McMillian?). There seems to be a really good crop of very young looseheads coming through the ranks at Super level (and esp. at the Chiefs). Surely Foster needs to take a punt of one or two with the 2023 World Cup in mind. If Moody goes down just prior or loses form.....
Sotutu and Sowakula both had their best games in a while, might be a Fijian v Fijian thing that had them both going hard.
@kiwimurph said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
I think Tele'a is a poor fit with Black at 10.
Black stands deep in the pocket and is almost no threat to run.
Meanwhile Tele'a is not a strong distributor. So the defense can easily key in on Tele'a beside Black as they know that Black won't run or even if he does he's not particularly dangerous.
Tele'a would be better suited to a 10 who plays flatter to the line and goes at the line.
That was why he was selected with Plummer.
@pakman which begs the question why was he selected with Black this last game?
@kiwimurph said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
@pakman which begs the question why was he selected with Black this last game?
??♂️
The biggest takeaway for me is trying to get my head around the contribution of Tanielu Teleʻa..
Leon MacDonald told us in an interview after Crusaders game that the loss of Tele’a early in the game had disrupted the Blues attacking game plan ..
After Saturday evening ,I saw nothing that even resembled any sort of creativeness from the backs with Tele’a being a pivotal part of the Blues attack ..!
Or maybe I am just missing something..??♂️
@old-samurai-jack said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
Clarke is soooo out of form! Even defensively he is running around like a headless chook. Is he looking to beat the man or just run into people? Why is he never in the right place?
Caleb Clarke massively out of form this season. Don't know what's going if its injury or a mental thing or poor coaching but his work rate is significantly below that expected of an AB starting wing.
@steven-harris Yeah Tele'a at this level is no more than a 20 minute impact player off the bench. He doesn't have the skill set to play in the midfield.
For now, he's a winger who can fill in at centre, no more. He's certainly no 12.
@sparky said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
Caleb Clarke massively out of form this season. Don't know what's going if its injury or a mental thing or poor coaching but his work rate is significantly below that expected of an AB starting wing.
Clarke has acknowledged this too.
“Personally I feel like I haven’t really got to my full potential, it’s been a lot harder this year, trying to get into these games.
“I came into this year with a goal to be working off the ball and getting the ball a lot,” he said.
“Whereas I’ve been working off the ball, but every time I’m running off my wing, I can hear everyone talking, like ‘Caleb’s coming’.
“Last weekend I could hear Sam Whitelock say that every time I tried to sneak around the rucks.
“Stuff like that is frustrating, but at the same time it is quite cool that I’m being so heavily marked. But it’s been one of those years where I’ve wanted to do tackle busting runs and get over the gain line, but it’s been tougher not getting the ball.”
@nzzp said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
@bovidae second year syndrome - suddenly you get marked, and you lift your game
Yep. Use the extra attention to distribute / offload and find the space that is created elsewhere. Maybe that is why he keeps heading infield rather than trying to go outside? Trying to link up, rather than go over or through a couple of defenders.
@nzzp said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
@bovidae second year syndrome - suddenly you get marked, and you lift your game
Like he did the week before against the Highlanders
@steven-harris what a head scratcher...doesn't feature at all then all of a sudden is a pivotal part of the game plan against the champs...ol Rangi didn't do himself (or Telea) any favours! SMH....
@nogusta said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
@steven-harris what a head scratcher...doesn't feature at all then all of a sudden is a pivotal part of the game plan against the champs...ol Rangi didn't do himself (or Telea) any favours! SMH....
I think what gets said to the media is deflection in some ways - probably didn't help losing a starter, but I'd be very surprised if he wasn't playing a bit of a game with the journo's, trying to turn the heat up on others
@nzzp said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
@bovidae second year syndrome - suddenly you get marked, and you lift your game
Second year syndrome in his 4th Super season?
TBF, his first two seasons weren't too memorable and he was basically a teenager back then.
@dice said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
TBF, his first two seasons weren't too memorable and he was basically a teenager back then.
did he even play much? I think he spent a lot of time with the 7s, and I just remember a yellow (or red) for taking out a south african player in the air.
but yeah, I think 2020 was his breakout year - now he's actually getting the attention
@african-monkey said in SRA Round 10: Blues v Chiefs:
@steven-harris Yeah Tele'a at this level is no more than a 20 minute impact player off the bench. He doesn't have the skill set to play in the midfield.
For now, he's a winger who can fill in at centre, no more. He's certainly no 12.
He's a lot like Moala. He doesn't quite look like a true midfielder or winger, but talented enough to be out there.
He looked handy on the wing back in 2019, but we have plenty of wingers now.