How the ABs are shaping

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

I thought all the players played well but what is going on with Taylor?

It's strange eh, he was absolutely on fire in SRA, slightly quieter in SRTT (did he get injured?) and now is only showing slight glimpses of anything resembling what he's capable of.

@tj said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

"Marginal" says Smithy... straight on his forearms

I mentioned that to Master Pakman at previous ruck he was NOT supporting his weight. Very quick to stabilise and lift so picture ref sees is often one of legal technique.

Taukeiaho has some great potential I would love to see more of him

Lock havili into 12. Really good game.

I don’t get what bower brings. De groot was better at super level and he looks better at international level. Imho de groot will be a world class star, he’s what just 22 years old?

Fiji were disappointing.

@victor-meldrew Will improve his rating from a 4 to 5.

@bones said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kiwiwomble said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

I’ll have to look out for Jacobson next time, I thought he was pretty invisible, frizell like, but all the plaudits he’s getting suggest otherwise

Definitely not, sat quite a few Fijians down on both sides of the ball. Think it was a couple of seasons ago players were talking about him having the hardest shoulder in super rugby?

Yeah I remember that talk leading into World Cup selection

@bones said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

Haven't read the thread but fuuuuuuck meeeeee what was in the air in Hamilton tonight?

Well done to Damon Murphy and his cohorts for the most incompetent test match performance of the year.

Well done to Nisbo and Marshall for the most incompetent call of the year.

Well done to the ground announcer for biggest fluffybunny performance of the year, managing to play shithouse music in even the smallest breaks in play and then continue playing it minutes after play has restarted.

Seems to be a thing. Almost worth a thread in itself.

More regular attendees at stadiums may be able to confirm but my two relatively recent attendances at Suncorp were marred by music blaring over the play.

The music is bad enough but they just get the timing wrong. For example, at kick off, they don't turn it off before the kick to allow the crowd to build up anticipation, nor when the kicker kicks off, nor when it is caught but when the first tackle is made. No atmosphere. Another example from last year's test was Aussie had a good period of play and finished with a nudge into the corner. Just as the crowd was warming into some supportive noise making, bam! music! ... vibe killer.

They seem to be able to mask the worst effects on the TB sound track. Obviously they didn't last night.

It's wrong, and it must stop. I'm starting a letter writing campaign. #GOM

@booboo said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@bones said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

Haven't read the thread but fuuuuuuck meeeeee what was in the air in Hamilton tonight?

Well done to Damon Murphy and his cohorts for the most incompetent test match performance of the year.

Well done to Nisbo and Marshall for the most incompetent call of the year.

Well done to the ground announcer for biggest fluffybunny performance of the year, managing to play shithouse music in even the smallest breaks in play and then continue playing it minutes after play has restarted.

Seems to be a thing. Almost worth a thread in itself.

More regular attendees at stadiums may be able to confirm but my two relatively recent attendances at Suncorp were marred by music blaring over the play.

The music is bad enough but they just get the timing wrong. For example, at kick off, they don't turn it off before the kick to allow the crowd to build up anticipation, nor when the kicker kicks off, nor when it is caught but when the first tackle is made. No atmosphere. Another example from last year's test was Aussie had a good period of play and finished with a nudge into the corner. Just as the crowd was warming into some supportive noise making, bam! music! ... vibe killer.

They seem to be able to mask the worst effects on the TB sound track. Obviously they didn't last night.

It's wrong, and it must stop. I'm starting a letter writing campaign. #GOM

What songs were playing ? If there’s one thing I love it’s hearing “Why does love do this to me” for about the millionth time sung by pissed up fans. Never gets old.

@mn5 I didn't recognise any of the songs. It was modern stuff, which the Pasifika crowd around me really got in to. Not the standard anthems much loved at the Sevens and other big matches at the venue. Did get a bit annoying at the start, but was great to see the multi-cultural crowd getting into it.
Got to say we loved it when the fire-blowers went up and warmed us all up in row E.
Don't understand why no ticket sales up in the old stand though...

@african-monkey said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

I'm definitely on the Jacobsen bandwagon for the time being

Yeah, his combo with Ioane looks good to me.

@victor-meldrew said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kiwiwomble said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

I’ll have to look out for Jacobson next time, I thought he was pretty invisible, frizell like, but all the plaudits he’s getting suggest otherwise

The old-timers used to have a saying along the lines of: "The best forward is often the one you don't notice and rarely gets mentioned in the commentary"

Akira was similarly good today - doing loads of grunt work.

I get it, it is hilarious though, if frizell went unnoticed he’d be getting lambasted

@kiwiwomble I noticed all our loosies last night, certainly better balance than last week.

I think alot of our problems start in jersies 1-3, just lack punch and aggression, lastb2 weekends we have looked better when our bench front rowers came on, especially Coles last week and the bench last night.

@kiwiwomble said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@victor-meldrew said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kiwiwomble said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

I’ll have to look out for Jacobson next time, I thought he was pretty invisible, frizell like, but all the plaudits he’s getting suggest otherwise

The old-timers used to have a saying along the lines of: "The best forward is often the one you don't notice and rarely gets mentioned in the commentary"

Akira was similarly good today - doing loads of grunt work.

I get it, it is hilarious though, if frizell went unnoticed he’d be getting lambasted

Did he go unnoticed though? Was driving players into touch, moving bodies in rucks, doing good work in the mauls and nothing made progress past him. A nice rip steal too, making up for an offside penalty just before.

Jacobson was the same, just shutting things down and continuously getting over the advantage line (Akira most notably for Saveas try).

It’s the physical starch that Frizzel has always promised but never delivered. Akira done it every time he’s played.

@kirwan I think the second penalty he gave away was B/S too, a halfback dithering after they touch the ball can make a player look offside. At any rate, the ABs playing close to that offside line was one of the key factors in blunting the Fijian pack.

@taniwharugby yeah Laulala is a good scrummager but offers about zero around the field. Taylor for the second year in a row is struggling to translate his Super form to Tests. Bower has actually shown improvement i've thought.

@nepia said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kirwan I think the second penalty he gave away was B/S too, a halfback dithering after they touch the ball can make a player look offside. At any rate, the ABs playing close to that offside line was one of the key factors in blunting the Fijian pack.

Yeah one of his was correct, one the halfback had lifted the ball. Not the only mistake the ref made, he was pretty poor.

@kiwimurph we have gone from having ball playing front rowers with great core skills to adequate scrummaging front rowers who bring little else, and this seems to flow back as to how we play as we want to play a game that is based around all our forwards being able to contribute, but they cant.

@kiwiwomble said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@victor-meldrew said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kiwiwomble said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

I’ll have to look out for Jacobson next time, I thought he was pretty invisible, frizell like, but all the plaudits he’s getting suggest otherwise

The old-timers used to have a saying along the lines of: "The best forward is often the one you don't notice and rarely gets mentioned in the commentary"

Akira was similarly good today - doing loads of grunt work.

I get it, it is hilarious though, if frizell went unnoticed he’d be getting lambasted

I notice Frizell. Notice him having no impact at collisions. Built like Tarzan plays like Jane.

@taniwharugby
like this lot
Kane Hames
Tim Perry
Jeffery Toomaga allen
Owen franks

@ploughboy fair point, aside from Owen, the others are hardly players that had good AB careers...but I'd argue when we have been at our best, we dominated up front and at least 1 (usually 2 plus Owen who was a rock at scrumtime) of our front rowers has had superb all round skills

Now our front rows are barely dominant at one facet let alone all, although are some good signs so hopefully just a blip

@arhs said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@mn5 I didn't recognise any of the songs. It was modern stuff, which the Pasifika crowd around me really got in to. Not the standard anthems much loved at the Sevens and other big matches at the venue. Did get a bit annoying at the start, but was great to see the multi-cultural crowd getting into it.

Yeah, the music was far too loud and annoying. It's never been that bad.

I assume someone from Mai FM in charge of the sounds as I wasn't familiar with the songs played either.

One point not mentioned in this thread was that when Rieko came on to replace Jordan, Reece ran over to the right wing and Ioane was on the left. They soon switched sides so Ioane was on my side of the field. This must have been a directive from the coaches to try Rieko as a right winger. Either way, I'd be happy with this combo in Bled 1.

No idea why the covered WEL Network stand was not used. We were sitting in the uncovered section in front of this.

@bovidae or give Reece more time on the left.

@kirwan said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kiwiwomble said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@victor-meldrew said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kiwiwomble said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

I’ll have to look out for Jacobson next time, I thought he was pretty invisible, frizell like, but all the plaudits he’s getting suggest otherwise

The old-timers used to have a saying along the lines of: "The best forward is often the one you don't notice and rarely gets mentioned in the commentary"

Akira was similarly good today - doing loads of grunt work.

I get it, it is hilarious though, if frizell went unnoticed he’d be getting lambasted

Did he go unnoticed though? Was driving players into touch, moving bodies in rucks, doing good work in the mauls and nothing made progress past him. A nice rip steal too, making up for an offside penalty just before.

Jacobson was the same, just shutting things down and continuously getting over the advantage line (Akira most notably for Saveas try).

It’s the physical starch that Frizzel has always promised but never delivered. Akira done it every time he’s played.

He did to me, even commented I had forgotten he was playing, so started looking for him and spotted him doing stuff but not game winning which was the level I expected from people’s comments, Already conceded I missed it rather than it didn’t happen,

was more specifically a reply to @Victor-Meldrew ’s analogy, and how it applies to some but frizell always gets criticised for not dominating, no one accepts he’s not doing the flash stuff, I even got told leading line takes and the sort (which he did a couple of times last year) isn’t enough

@crazy-horse said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@bovidae or give Reece more time on the left.

It’s a good way to build options there, let’s us move away from Bridge. And RI becomes very hand for the bench covering both wings and centre.

@kirwan said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@crazy-horse said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@bovidae or give Reece more time on the left.

It’s a good way to build options there, let’s us move away from Bridge. And RI becomes very hand for the bench covering both wings and centre.

RI tends to carry the ball under his right arm anyway, so at least he doesn't have to make that adjustment.

@frank haha I pulled that line out to my mate the other day about him funnily enough.

@kiwiwomble said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kirwan said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kiwiwomble said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@victor-meldrew said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kiwiwomble said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

I’ll have to look out for Jacobson next time, I thought he was pretty invisible, frizell like, but all the plaudits he’s getting suggest otherwise

The old-timers used to have a saying along the lines of: "The best forward is often the one you don't notice and rarely gets mentioned in the commentary"

Akira was similarly good today - doing loads of grunt work.

I get it, it is hilarious though, if frizell went unnoticed he’d be getting lambasted

Did he go unnoticed though? Was driving players into touch, moving bodies in rucks, doing good work in the mauls and nothing made progress past him. A nice rip steal too, making up for an offside penalty just before.

Jacobson was the same, just shutting things down and continuously getting over the advantage line (Akira most notably for Saveas try).

It’s the physical starch that Frizzel has always promised but never delivered. Akira done it every time he’s played.

He did to me, even commented I had forgotten he was playing, so started looking for him and spotted him doing stuff but not game winning which was the level I expected from people’s comments, Already conceded I missed it rather than it didn’t happen,

was more specifically a reply to @Victor-Meldrew ’s analogy, and how it applies to some but frizell always gets criticised for not dominating, no one accepts he’s not doing the flash stuff, I even got told leading line takes and the sort (which he did a couple of times last year) isn’t enough

So did you notice Ioane winning lineouts? I don't think you mentioned that. And after awhile the Fijian forwards went out of their way not to run into Jacobson and Ioane. But my fave moment was Savea manhandling a Fiian forward with the ball while two Fijians held onto him and all 3 got pushed backwards. He really was physically on fire last night.

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kiwiwomble said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kirwan said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kiwiwomble said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@victor-meldrew said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kiwiwomble said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

I’ll have to look out for Jacobson next time, I thought he was pretty invisible, frizell like, but all the plaudits he’s getting suggest otherwise

The old-timers used to have a saying along the lines of: "The best forward is often the one you don't notice and rarely gets mentioned in the commentary"

Akira was similarly good today - doing loads of grunt work.

I get it, it is hilarious though, if frizell went unnoticed he’d be getting lambasted

Did he go unnoticed though? Was driving players into touch, moving bodies in rucks, doing good work in the mauls and nothing made progress past him. A nice rip steal too, making up for an offside penalty just before.

Jacobson was the same, just shutting things down and continuously getting over the advantage line (Akira most notably for Saveas try).

It’s the physical starch that Frizzel has always promised but never delivered. Akira done it every time he’s played.

He did to me, even commented I had forgotten he was playing, so started looking for him and spotted him doing stuff but not game winning which was the level I expected from people’s comments, Already conceded I missed it rather than it didn’t happen,

was more specifically a reply to @Victor-Meldrew ’s analogy, and how it applies to some but frizell always gets criticised for not dominating, no one accepts he’s not doing the flash stuff, I even got told leading line takes and the sort (which he did a couple of times last year) isn’t enough

So did you notice Ioane winning lineouts? I don't think you mentioned that. And after awhile the Fijian forwards went out of their way not to run into Jacobson and Ioane. But my fave moment was Savea manhandling a Fiian forward with the ball while two Fijians held onto him and all 3 got pushed backwards. He really was physically on fire last night.

I did, but didn’t mention it because I haven’t been talking about ioane…if I had been…I would have

@kiwiwomble what as pile of wank, drop the rule FFS.

@machpants said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kiwiwomble what as pile of wank, drop the rule FFS.

God you will defend Ardie to the hilt over anything eh.

This is a guy who decided to wear a fucken action hero mask while playing, yet he can't don a mouthguard?

@bones said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@machpants said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kiwiwomble what as pile of wank, drop the rule FFS.

God you will defend Ardie to the hilt over anything eh.

This is a guy who decided to wear a fucken action hero mask while playing, yet he can't don a mouthguard?

There is a little bit of a Streisand effect going on, would anybody have noticed if the players association hadn’t mentioned it?

I understand they want players to be role models for wearing them, but just make it a rule that refs enforce for kids. Not sure what they are achieving making ABs wear them.

@Kirwan Ardie's mouthguard is pink so very visible if he isn't using it.

This has always been an issue and the players need to comply. The ref and officials could sort this out easy by making players leave the field if they don't wear a mouthguard. It is compulsory in the lower grades, and I've seen a player penalised for not having their mouthguard in.

Jordie is good at wearing his in his sock.

@kirwan yeah that's a good point! I don't have kids so you'd probably be better placed to judge what they notice (I imagine kids or machpants that idolise Ardie might notice no mouthguard).

O8s there something wrong with old stand at Waikato Stadium? Why was it not used?

My feeling is if he’s said he will then he should…if he doesn’t think he should have too then fight for the right not too, it not compulsory from WR, they call it a collective agreement rather than an employment condition which makes me think there has been some discussion

@Rapido yeah, I’d still like to know what the deal was

@Yeetyaah how was it? Enjoy?

@rapido said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

O8s there something wrong with old stand at Waikato Stadium? Why was it not used?

@WillieTheWaiter may be able to tell us.

@bones said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@kirwan yeah that's a good point! I don't have kids so you'd probably be better placed to judge what they notice (I imagine kids or machpants that idolise Ardie might notice no mouthguard).

Nah, they wouldn’t. But both my kids never had a problem wearing them so it’s already a non issue. Specially as the girl plays hockey, which seems to be a game designed by dentists.